Behind her Eyes
by Yoshtar
Summary: Kerrigan decides to spare a Terran child the infestation she has undergone, What happens when a twist of fate deals him a Hand meant for Kerrigan? OC's possible ooc and non Canon plus the cutest little Zergling EVER
1. 1 a stroke by fate

**I do not own StarCraft 2 as that belongs to blizzard. I do not own any games I may reference during the course of this fanfic. I do however own any OC's named or not used during this fanfic including Josh**

It was another fine day for the planet of Hlaalu (if you could pronounce the Protoss name). Of recent years, though, the Protoss had abandoned the planet after the fall of Auir and the Terran Dominion had taken over and built their cities near subterranean Protoss bases. Other, more virulent forces had other ideas though.

As the organic meteors fell in typical Zerg invasion patterns they did what they normally did; either be too fast or too numerous for the enemy defences to possibly shoot you all. Zerglings and Hydralisks quickly overwhelming the planetary defence cannons of the poorly defended planet, allowing, nay even prompting more ferocious members of the swarm to land, including one class twelve psionic life form

As Kerrigan emerged from the overlord and started to direct her swarm onto the defenceless population of the cities and the dormant Protoss structures underground she felt a psionic itch; as if another psionic life form who hadn't yet realised their powers was nearby.

Taking a small guard of Zerglings who were more cannon fodder than anything else, Kerrigan moved to investigate. Anticipation growing as she got closer to the source; another creature such as herself would become a great asset of the swarm, even perhaps rising to the level of one of her lieutenants; if he proved trustworthy that is. Seeing that the psionic itch was coming from a small bunker with a heavy door (a bomb shelter perhaps) she set her Zerglings to tearing the door down. Noticing that the thickness of the door was preventing the 'lings from denting the door enough to get through it in a timely fashion Kerrigan simply used her psi powers to tear the hinges and had the Zerglings knock it down.

Inside the bunker was a small family spread out over several rooms, each fell as she moved from room to room until she had located the source of the psionic itch. It was a small boy wearing a blue hoodie with black trousers and a pair of black shoes. He couldn't have been much older than twelve he was huddling in the corner scared out of his mind.

She was about to knock him unconscious when she saw something in him that stilled her hand. She saw herself as the Zerg overwhelmed New Gettysburg just before her own infestation. As this realization came the small part of her mind still owned by Sarah Kerrigan and not the Queen of Blades screamed with all its might "NO!".

The mental blow stunned her before Sarah Kerrigan became silent once again. The Queen of Blades turned to her victim once again but could not find the will to hurt the boy in any way. "Is this pity?" she said surprised at herself "Pity for this boy? Nevertheless the swarm could use one like him".

The boy was still sitting there too scared to do anything but as the Zerglings got close to carry him away he waved his arm and unleashed a wave of psionic energy that flung the two unfortunate Zerglings into the wall behind Kerrigan and almost flinging her but a quick psionic barrier stopped her from sharing the fate of the Zerglings "he's at least a class nine I'm sure of that" she said admiring his handiwork on her 'pets' if such a word could be used in this case

The strain on his psyche that throwing the psionic blow had caused left him unconscious as undeveloped talents were want to do. Sighing Kerrigan carried him to the waiting overlord herself, thankful that the new pneumatized carapaces would make this trip brief.

The boy woke up some time later and looked around. He was on some sort of living … Carpet? Deciding that this was one strange dream He looked around the room and explored. There was a small window looking out over a planet which he soon recognized as Hlaalu; there was a small yet ignored note of pride as he managed to finally remember the name correctly that was crushed by larger worries. He was on some sort of living spaceship, in a room with what he could tell were Hydralisks guarding the only exit which was a sealed opaque membrane around a round opening.

He had always known that people were coming well before others it was a small talent that he had. Another one was being able to, at the cost of consciousness; throw some sort of wave using his arms, judging from his headache he had done so recently as well. He had told no one of these abilities as he didn't want to end up as a ghost. He always felt a sort of either sadness or cockiness from them and had made a promise to himself that he would never end up as them, although judging from the fact that he was on a Zerg spaceship of some kind he didn't look like he was going anyplace better for it.

As he noticed a large cocoon-like pod towards the side of the room it started to open up; revealing the horror of all horrors, the Queen of Blades. He recognized her from the propaganda holovids and shrunk back into a corner praying that she hadn't seen him yet.

However it was to late for the small Terran boy as Kerrigan turned her head his way.

"Good morning" she said with a smirk on her face as the small boy all but soiled himself in fear. "Don't worry, if I had any intention to harm you, I would have done so already."

The boy just sat there and shivered in the corner out of fear, believing that he was either dead or infested for sure.

"Mind if I ask your name? I really must know the name of the one whom I can't bring myself to harm"

Stunned the boy reflexively managed to reply "J- J- Joshua miss" his mind reeling. Had she really just said she couldn't bring herself to harm him? Was that why she had brought him here?

"Yes and yes" Kerrigan replied like she had read his thoughts and was casually answering a question.

(She can hear my thoughts?) Joshua thought

(And you can hear mine, should I so wish it) was the mental reply

After hunger and a promise of food had lured Joshua out of the corner long enough for Kerrigan to open the door with a touch on the membrane, He made a break for it, returning being dragged by the hood by three victorious looking Zerglings.

"Zerglings can jump faster and longer then even the most highly trained Terran can sprint" Kerrigan said, "Although I must give you credit for making it halfway across my Leviathan before they ran you to ground. most people wouldn't have made it that far even with the surprise escape attempt"

Kerrigan had her Hydralisks stand guard near Joshua to stop anymore escape attempts and gave him a grand tour of the Leviathan.

"Why are you doing this?" Joshua asked

"Well, its simply because I cant bring myself to infest you like me or kill you" she said radiating her honesty from herself, "and its because you rate at least at level nine psychic. The swarm could use with minds like yours"

"You can't kill me?" Joshua asked

"No I can kill you, but a small part of me prevents me from acting on that impulse" Kerrigan said. Might as well be honest with him, he's staying for a fair bit whether he likes it or not, and it pays to be nice to people you're going to spend a lot of time with but I wonder if this is going too far.

Realising the gravity behind the words that the Queen of Blades or Kerrigan as she said she had preferred to be called, Joshua realised the nature of the Koprulu sectors worst enemy. Instantly the rage and fear he felt over his families deaths melting away in the sympathy and newfound pity that he now felt for her

"I can stay for a bit, if you would like that. You kinda left me with nowhere … else, to go" he said suppressing a tear at the thought of his dead family, "I can … help"

Kerrigan seemed lost in his thoughts and her own but he couldn't tell which "that would be … nice" she said, then shaking herself of the stupor said "besides I can help you NOT pass out whenever you throw a psionic attack at something and I might even teach you how to control some of the swarm"

Laughing she showed me to my quarters and showed me how to seal myself into the 'sleeping pod' as she called it before hitting the hay, it was gonna be a LONG day tomorrow

**Authors notes**

**Well here is my Second Fanfiction I hope its good for a start. I look forward to being able to write the hilarity of this story which is supposed to be more light-hearted than my other fic. (Currently incomplete and on a small pause whilst I work up sufficient motivation to write it again) Ultralisk wrangling anyone?**

**Any who read review and ENJOY or I will come down on your ass like a hundred Xel'naga**


	2. 2 a rude awakening

**I do not own StarCraft 2. StarCraft 2 belongs to blizzard. I do not own any other games or movies I may reference. Those belong to their respective creators. I do own OC's like josh and would like to know if you happen to use him in your fictions.**

Josh concentrated, and reached out with his mind towards the Zergling, and feeling its simple mind wormed his way in.

"Now for the tricky part" he said to a watchful Kerrigan

He then focused his mind and sent a single command. At first nothing happened then the 'ling seemed to get the idea of what the human in front of it was trying to say and sat down. Josh cheered just as the Zergling rapidly spun itself a cocoon and morphed into a Baneling.

"Darn" was Josh's response

"Now that's one I haven't seen yet" said Kerrigan amused at the sudden reaction to the non-verbal command.

"Well at least it did something" he said with some hope "And it actually was something mildly useful too"

"But still it isn't what we wanted it to do" she said, still chuckling to herself

"I just need to work on it"

"We can practice later" Kerrigan said, an incoming message from the Brood Mother who was supposed to be watching over the southern hive cluster

"Something's come up; I'll leave you to your own devices; I must attend to a small problem with the southern hive cluster" Kerrigan said

"What sort of problem?" Josh asked after her

"Nothing much, just a small 'miscommunication' with a Brood Mother" She said thinking about how she would take down the Brood Mother

"Ok, I'll see you when you get that 'straightened out'" Josh replied as he picked up on the psychic vibe Kerrigan exuded. He knew this song and dance; it seems his arrival didn't go down well with the less intelligent brood mothers.

"Just work on getting a Zergling to obey you without morphing." She said

"Will do" he said as he walked towards the hive the Hydralisks allowing him through without any sort of problems at least, Kerrigan noticed

Once inside the Hive Josh walked through the gigantic organic structure until he found his room. Izsha had been teaching him the secrets of rearing Zerg and he had been practicing with a small larva that she had given him. The egg was showing signs of progress since he had last washed it in the nutrient rich, miniature spawning pool that he kept near his room (he didn't want the fumes from it choking him in his sleep) and he gave it another bathing in the pool. Izsha had modified it somewhat as a larva and said that the result when it hatched would make a nice pet for him when Kerrigan was away. He pondered at Izshas niceness towards him; there was something of her loyalty towards the queen when she spoke to him but also there seemed to be a genuine feeling for him, what it was he couldn't tell without first gaining access to the hive mind, whose sheer size would send him crazy in seconds

"So how is the Queens 'favourite' this morning" said Zahra the Brood Mother who watched over the hive cluster, her every word laced with venom.

"Fine I'll bite" Josh replied "you know I have as little idea as you as to why she spared me, I simply know that she has a plan for me" with only half a truth

Zahra simply puffed herself up and wondered aloud why she had to put up with an un-infested Terran in HER hive

Taking the egg to its spot in his room he looked about. It was a small cosy space, and was completely organic everything down to the bed was part of what had once been a drone as he had seen when they expanded into a new hive cluster. He pulled a small mineral crystal out of his pocket and placed it on one of the shelves that Kerrigan had grown out of the wall when he asked her.

He had a small collection of loose odds and ends, a Hydralisk spine here a Zergling tooth there a fragment of roach armour to the side and now the mineral crystal making a nice centrepiece to his collection.

As the sun set that day Josh, having seen some success and by sheer chance managed to get a Zergling to actually obey his mental commands, before after thirty seconds he realised that its new orders came from a human and started attacking. He had bruises and a claw mark from that but mostly he was unharmed the same however couldn't be said for the little energetic ball of claws and teeth which had attempted to tear his throat out just seconds ago before he had sent it flying causing a massive headache as one of the Hydralisks following him around shot the Zergling properly dead.

He headed for his room, but was unable to sleep. He still, in the weeks since he had come here, had yet to get used to sleeping in the cocoon like structures the Zerg queen did and a steady diet of the stomach unsettling creep and nutrient slurries formulated by Abathur didn't help.

He awoke in the middle of the night to some slight scuffling sounds in his room. The door was open as he had forgotten to close it before bed. Kicking himself as he realized this he looked out of the cocoon and saw that there was a small Zergling struggling to pull itself out of 'my' egg. I helped it out of its egg, wondering what Izsha was playing at giving me this for a pet.

There was a second smaller scuffling sound behind me from the still open door and the little Zergling looked at me for guidance as if it thought I was its mother and I heard a shrill squeak. He heard Abathur shouting in the back of his head, Right where an excruciating pain sprang up like someone had hit him over the back of the head. On a similar note he fell unconscious also like someone hat hit him in the back of the head.

Kerrigan was heading home, her guard flanking her as close as ever, along the craggy southern pass across the ridges separating the southern hive cluster which stood between the southern cluster and the main one, when she heard a small scream from up the road. The Hydralisk next to her hissed in anticipation of what was coming, when it finally came into view Kerrigan was stunned

The main hive was gone. It had been blown up from the inside thankfully the others still stood, so there was no chance of a Terran incursion, and she would know if the Protoss had tried to 'purify' Char. As her thoughts raced she could think of no answer until she heard a shrill wailing sound coming from the ruins of the hive. It would appear that there was a very young Zergling guarding over the unconscious form of Josh, whose mind thankfully appeared to be intact, and Kerrigan quickly stepped into action probing his mind to find out what had happened.

She saw sure signs of a neural parasite trying to take his mind over, namely a loud squeak and the pain, but when she looked with her mind for the parasite she found nothing. This either meant it had died after getting in, or it had been removed. Seeing as no Zerg in its right mind would do such a thing that only meant that it was dead.

She turned her attention at last to the Zergling who strangely seemed to be the only living thing that had been in the hive at the time of detonation. From its simple mind she saw her suspicions confirmed and a large number of things that raised questions.

_Mom was looking me over when I heard a loud sound I didn't recognise. I turned and saw a small something land on moms back. It crawled up to his neck and dug itself in. he screamed and there was a BIG flash of bright light. I wondered what the little ball had been. I closed my eyes to avoid the pain of looking at the light. When I felt the flash die down I saw mom lying there, he was asleep but when I poked him he didn't get up. I panicked and called for help. Then she came. She was so beautiful and she looked at mom funny then me._

"Well that was … weird" was all Kerrigan thought to say thinking how Josh would normally be the first to say that, if he were awake right now.

Josh cracked his eyes open welcoming a massive headache like one he had never felt, even considering when he had first remain conscious after a small wave attack, and that had caused him to spend the day in bed. He looked around his mind recoiling as he heard a great many things; but what was unsettling was that he heard most of them in his head.

"Ugh, what happened" he asked groggily almost startling Kerrigan

"Well, it seems that you somehow managed to psionically blow up one of my hives." Kerrigan reported her voice displaying a mixture of emotion varying from annoyance and frustration (those hives WERE replaceable after all he reasoned) to barely suppressed anger and fury to a sense of … pride?

"Also it seems that we need to pay Abathur a visit" he said

"And why would that be?"

"I heard him shouting right as whatever it was got me, and also this smacks me of one of his … experiments" he said with a shudder on the last two words knowing what the gene master got up to in his spare time.

"True, also that Zergling hasn't stopped staring at you and me"

"It was the Larva that Izsha gave me" he replied with a small grin "I thought the name T'zu would work."

"Unusual choice, given the Protoss origin of the name" Kerrigan remarked

"It just came to me in a bad dream" he said with a wince. He had been probing the back of his head and found a tender spot in, what he remembered his father, who had been a sniper, called the apricot. "Let's get this mess sorted out first before we argue though"

"For once we agree" Kerrigan sighed. This was one hell of a night that she could have done without.


	3. 3 a new playing field

**I do not own StarCraft 2, Blizzard owns that. Games and/or movies referenced belong to their respective creators. I do own Josh/Damon and T'zu plus any named or unnamed OC's mentioned in this fanfiction.**

Abathur was 'moving' towards the hive with what little speed he could muster, knowing what his 'experiment' was capable of. He had been trying to improve on the neural parasite by trying to allow his Queen to more directly control the host creature and allow her to use her psionic abilities _through_ them.

As he approached he saw the queen and her usual cohort of hunter-killers heading for him. Behind her was, amusingly, a rather pained looking Josh. He chuckled to himself; his experiments with the failed parasite that had escaped him had only resulted in psionic Zerglings who had subsequently gone insane due to the simplicity of their brains. He was sure that something like a Terran would be able to withstand the sudden psionic abilities though, albeit not before they had undergone quite a lot of mental stress trying to learn not to read everything's thoughts.

"What was it that you intended to do, unleashing one of your experiments on Josh here" Kerrigan demanded angrily

"I am sorry my queen the parasite escaped me, and must have found Josh here" was the reply.

Josh was furious at Abathur, he was hearing a lot suddenly, everything from the discomfort of the hunter-killers to the deranged thought processes of Abathur, and his distaste for all  
Terrans, especially him, he didn't realise what all of this was though, and thought that Abathur was actually saying what he was hearing. Instinctively he acted

The hunter-killer turned towards Abathur and within the blink of an eye Abathur had a large cut caused by the grooves and hooks in the Hydralisk's spine. Kerrigan's eyes went wide when she saw this and immediately snatched control back from whatever had taken control of her hunter-killers.

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" Josh was saying and collapsed again, immediately gaining everyone's attention.

The Zergling who thought of him as its mother turned to him and tried to wake him up having more success this time as a hand then reached out and started to pet him scratching right behind his ears, which was pure bliss to the small creature.

"hey there boy" Josh said weakly his mind overwhelmed by the sheer number of thoughts in the local area including the remnants of the swarm near the hive searching for whatever had blown the hive up and anything worth salvaging. He promptly passed out soon after

"It seems that he's jumped a few points on that silly PIM" said Abathur with distaste, the cut already sealing.

"It would seem so; you, however deserved that" Kerrigan said turning to Abathur and indicating the cut.

"Yes my queen, we are fortunate that it does not take much to replace those hives." He said with a neutral tone.

"Fortunate for you as well as him" she said

_(Three years later)_

_Josh had eventually learned to master his new psi powers, easily topping the scale that the Terrans had developed to measure psi power. His loyalty and friendship with the queen was unquestioned by the swarm though personally, he hated the term consort. He was a steadfast companion of the Queen who had taught him how to manage the swarm. Eventually he had decided to call himself Damon to signify him starting a new life with the swarm. Hell even Abathur's nutrient mixes started tasting GOOD, like he had finally figured out how to make sugar or something. Recently though, since at leats last month or so, things had not been going well leading to Kerrigan personally leading several strikes into dominion territory but also with her leaving him behind more and more. He was on char when a giant mass of Terrans with a familiar artefact invaded char_

"COME GET SOME!" shouted an obnoxiously loud marine

"Not likely" was Damon's reply throwing a spear he had made using a Hydralisk's spine psionically guiding the spear. The spear impacted leaving not much of the Marine's face left.

He had been protecting the main hive alongside Kerrigan for hours. The fight, to be sure, had not been going well, the Terrans would be long gone if it wasn't for that stupid Xel'naga artefact forcing a stalemate whilst it charged, where they had got it, he had no idea, but he would be damned if it was going to hurt Kerrigan.

Damon ordered a large bunch of Zerglings and Ultralisks to travel down the nydus network; they had no air support due to the Dominion forces destroying the Orbital platform that they had been nesting on. He prayed that the siege would break as the Terrans had air lifted most of their base to prevent the Zerg from damaging most of it but whenever the defences looked like they were going to lose they would activate some sort of pulse which destroyed all the Zerg nearby the base.

Another marine, another kill this was getting tiresome.

He was protecting the hive whilst Kerrigan recuperated from her latest effort to break the stalemate when the artefact finally charged. A giant pulse of blue light seared its way through everything leaving no Zerg creature standing. It demolished most of the hive as well and what was left would die on its own.

Damon ran, trying to prevent the marines from entering, they were there in a medivac long before he was. He managed to reach the entrance to the hive just as he heard several loud gunshots from inside. T'zu jumped at a Marine in black armour as he exited the hive. He was carrying a creature that looked like Kerrigan, but it didn't have the carapace or wings. T'zu was thrown off of him by a ranger in teal and I blocked the gunshots that naturally followed; one of the shots destroying my spear. I jumped at the black marine, but never made it, my world instead turned as black as his armour just as I landed on him

James Raynor had never seen anything like it before. There he was, a clearly un-infested Terran and had just attacked him with what looked like a Hydralisk spine on the end of a rod of what appeared to be bone or chitin. When he had used his shoulder to knock him unconscious the small Zergling with him had immediately stopped attacking us with him and The Zergling had instead run to the boy and tried to wake him up.

The raider next to him summed up the situation in three words "what the F**K"

"That's what I wanna know" Raynor said as the Zergling started to do something very un-zerglike and cried, its wailing shrieks filling the air. The crying only intensified when he saw what was in Raynor's arms.

"Jeez, makes you feel bad for the little guy" said another raider, who was emerging from the ruins of the hive only just now, having seen the scene but had been dealing with a sudden gun jam.

"I can carry the kid for you" said the first raider, "Stetmann might find these two rather interesting".

Raynor had just left carrying Kerrigan, he wanted to get off of Char as soon as he could, and he wasn't going to stand around and wait for the Zerg to find him. He simply left Kerrigan in the medivac and grabbed the controls, dimly aware of the other two raiders carrying the boy and a small commotion as a small Zergling jumped onto the boarding ramp just as he lifted off and returned to the Hyperion.

Raynor carried Kerrigan to sickbay whilst the two raiders performed a dual job trying to keep the Zergling from clawing their boots off and trying to get the boy to sickbay.

_(Several hours later)_

Damon woke up in a small white room light dimly, got up and realised that the clothes, which had served him for three years on char had been removed and were replaced with a somewhat open medical gown. He had a headache, AGAIN, and decided to search his surroundings.

He hadn't read ANYTHING in 3 years and could not understand a single thing on any of the pill bottles, and given the type of chemicals he had seen in the labs that the dominion had kept he didn't want to go trying any of them.

Looking around Damon saw Kerrigan who wasn't moving but little T'zu was nowhere to be seen. Damon fought his headache which only intensified when he psychically searched for T'zu. Nearly blacking out he located T'zu who was sleeping nearby in a different room.

Using his mind which had a strangely reduced range now he walked through the metallic corridors of whatever structure he was in dodging everyone that he picked up using his psychic radar. He eventually found a room with a large golden crystal that he guessed was related to the Protoss and a strange Zerg aberration in two different tanks. In a third one he found T'zu who woke up as he approached. He used his talents to "cut" a hole in the glass and picked up T'zu and petted him.

Six Marines swiftly entered the room and were promptly flung against the wall as Damon turned to leave. The black armoured Marine entered but unlike before he didn't have his armour. Damon remembered seeing his face on wanted posters throughout the dominion during Zerg raids and propaganda vids from before his abduction. It was none other than Jim Raynor himself followed by what could only be described as a nerd in a lab coat. I was stunned for a second

"Um, you don't want to get to close to that thing" said the egghead

"Really? I didn't just raise him for three years without incident then?" Damon shot at him with half a mind to send him to the same fate as the marines (who were either groaning and had busted servos in their suit's or were unconscious)

"You what?" said one of the marines who weren't unconscious before passing out

"So you have six defunct marines but also the infamous Jim Raynor, what are you gonna do with little me?" I said making my severe irritation and displeasure obvious sarcastically throwing my arms in the air

"Well we were gonna give you a choice" Raynor said "but now I don't think we can safely let you go, seeing what ya did there"

"Really? I hadn't guessed" was the sarcastic reply before Damon placed T'zu on the ground; T'zu just simply rubbed himself against Damon's bare ankles producing an oddly soothing effect

"Consider yourself our first and only conscript" Egghead said, before offhandedly adding "interesting choice of pet."

"well you live with the Zerg swarm and it kinda grows on you" Damon replied giving the small thing another scratch behind the ears; eliciting delighted purrs and squeals, "besides I was gonna stay, since I know you aren't about to let the Queen of Blades just go running free; even with you doing whatever you did to her, and wherever Kerrigan goes I do too" he added placing emphasis on how much he did NOT like that particular turn of events.

"well then I can show you to your room then" Raynor added "you might want some new clothes too, oh and try not to break the next set of marines, they're there to stop anyone hurting themselves"

"I'll keep that in mind" Damon said following Raynor and leaving the egghead and a few medics that had shown up to clean up the glass and the marines. His room wasn't the most comfortable ever but it worked and with T'zu there he slept until a loud beeping could be heard as the dim cycle ended on what he had learned was the battle cruiser Hyperion.

"_**And so he awakes"**_said what was unmistakably a Protoss

"What do you want" Damon said rubbing his eyes as a familiar dark templar sat across the room from him.

"_**Some time, alone, to talk"**_ Zeratul replied

"I'm listening and I have al the time in the world with you here" Damon said annoyed at his presence

"_**I have seen visions of the future, and you, appear many times, playing a key role, not as large as the queens or even Raynors but nonetheless, a key role"**_ he replied cryptically

"And considering what's been going on I'm either going to destroy the universe or save it right? You were rather heavy on that kind of thing" Damon said.

"_**I would not have contacted you otherwise, you will have a choice and it may well cost you your life, I must go, my limited time is up" **_Zeratul replied slightly annoyed at me. He left the room and the cool feeling in the room warmed slightly.

"That was … interesting" Damon said wondering how he had ended up like this. here he was on a battle cruiser at the age of sixteen, well before he could join ANY sort of corps friends of someone who up until recently had been the bane of existence for four years, caught up, according to the Protoss, in a stupidly huge conspiracy that would mean he had to save the universe.

"Yeah existence is screwed up" he said and grabbed T'zu and asked the two marines now stationed outside his room to take him to the cafeteria.

Once there he was bombarded with sights smells and odours as most of the crew that hadn't pulled all night cleaning crew's planet side, scrambled to get breakfast.

He got himself a little food and a small steak for T'zu to chew on before sitting down to eat. Despite everyone else complaining about it, he was immediately blown away, synthetic or no, the bacon and egg sandwich was defiantly one of the best things he had eaten in a VERY long time.

"Way better than Abathur's meals" Damon muttered to himself.

"What was that?" one of his guards asked him.

"Better then what the Zerg makes to feed humans" he clarified

"Really? And what does fine dining down there consist of" asked the guard

"Well the gene master of the swarm was tasked with producing something to keep me healthy; so he made a sort of … slurry. That and eating creep meant I didn't starve but I didn't like it either" he said as if recalling a fond memory

This caused a shudder in all that were in earshot

"Wow, and I thought Jones had a cast iron stomach" was a mutter he heard a fair bit of

The guard blinked at him suddenly looking rather green. There was the noise of vomiting in the background followed by a classic "oh god its EVERYWHERE" from a marine whose faceplate was now covered in bile and breakfast

A spectre tapped me on the shoulder and said "that aint right brudda, I heard Jenkins accidently ate some the other week Mon, would explain why he was only released from sickbay yesterday."

"Well I somehow managed it" Damon said to him, sensing powerful psionics from the spectre "I actually want more of this"

"I don't blame ya mon" the spectre replied, sitting down next to him "I gotta say you stand out with that Zergling hoverin' near ya like that"

"I raised him for most of my time on char" was Damon's reply "he's sort of like my familiar."

"That be mighty … strange" was the reply "but I get what ya mean"

"I chose the name Damon down there, not many Zerg had names, but I'm going to go ahead and guess you've got one." He said placing a small sarcastic emphasis on the last part

"They call me Blade, I guess you can too … if ya want" was the reply between bites of food.

Kerrigan awoke in the medibay, as an annoying beeping noise sounded for a few seconds before subsiding. "I'm on the Hyperion, damned Raynor" she said to herself

"You called?" was the reply from across the room Raynor stepping into view

"I knew you would come, and with friends" she teased

"But you didn't see the artefact coming did you?" Raynor said

"No round three to you then" she said as if she had been keeping score. She smiled right until Raynor held up a mirror.

There wasn't anyone in the entire coalition fleet who didn't hear the psychic scream.

"_**I feel a great disturbance in the void" **_Zeratul said aboard his ship _**"as if something … amusing has happened to Kerrigan"**_

**Author's notes**

**I will post replies to reviews here as replying to them seems to be disabled on this, my second EVER fanfic, for some reason**

**Anon: I'm trying not to randomly switch between 3****rd**** and 1****st**** person but sometimes id does get a little hard as every other fiction literally was all first person.**

**I am fully aware that there are grammar and punctuation errors and yes Blade the spectre really does talk in Jamaican Rasta just like tosh. No he is NOT related to tosh in any way**

**Just you know so you don't ask**

**R&R and ENJOY this is meant to be fun and possibly funny sometimes. Subscribes and favourite mean a lot but if you post a helpful review it means the world to me.**


	4. 4 settling in

**I do not own StarCraft 2 because blizzard beat me to it, and I don't own any movies/games referenced in here they belong to their respective creators. I do own Damon the friend of the Swarm, T'zu the young Zergling and Blade the spectre as well as any OC's that appear named or not.**

"YOU BASTARD!" Kerrigan screamed at Raynor

"whoa, calm down" Raynor replied trying to sound calm himself as soon as the ringing in his ears and mind reduced enough so that he could hear the profanities being directed at him. When the scream had sounded he had been thrown across the room luckily for him though he was still in medibay and could have himself patched up after everything had calmed down.

"CALM DOWN? YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS INSULT!" said a very angry Kerrigan whose yellow eyes had started glowing showing (besides the new dreadlocks) that she wasn't completely free of the Zerg

Just then the doors to the medical bay exploded as Damon ran to Kerrigan's aid. When Kerrigan saw Damon her eyes dimmed some but were glowing enough to still indicate she was still furious.

"My queen what is the matt- … err" he said stopping short when he saw what Kerrigan was angry about.

T'zu recognized Kerrigan and jumped on her lap surprising her as he tried to snuggle up close to her.

"Jim you surprise me" Kerrigan said her eyes now dull and non-luminescent "letting a Zergling on board your cruiser."

"It's not my fault, he insisted on following him" Raynor replied sitting up painfully and indicating Damon "and Stetman had wanted to study him, we had never seen anything like him."

"There are plenty of secrets that the swarm holds from you" Kerrigan said.

Raynor looked as if he was about to reply when the communicator at his hip beeped.

"Sir, what the hell happened down there" Matt said.

"Not a good time right now" Raynor said seeing Kerrigan remember why she had been angry just a second ago her eyes starting to glow again, "I'll be on the bridge in five"

Raynor hastily got up quickly got out of the room before Kerrigan could pull off another psionic blow.

"Wise move" Damon noted.

At last two very exhausted and very annoyed marines caught up to Damon, who had sprinted with full psionically boosted fury through the ship to get to Kerrigan ASAP.

"God kid *huff, puff* don't run off like that *puff, huff, dry swallow*" said the lead one

"Doesn't help that *cough, cough* he used the vents too *huff*" said the other

"The queen called, and I came" Damon said

"That's all well and good boy but were safe here, no need to run like the devil himself is after you" said the lead marine

"I just broke some sort of speed record right?" said Damon "last time I ran like that I managed to cross half a leviathan before the Zerglings cornered me"

"I dunno but I think ya came close" said the trailing marine "plus the property damage"

Just then the Egghead, who Damon had learned was called Stetman, came through the remains of the medibay door. Looking at the scene Stetman summed up the situation quickly and immediately reached for a communicator at his belt

"Um Sir? I think I found your anomaly" he said "we might need a longer running track"

Kerrigan just laughed "it seems that you manage to cause a better stir than I did" she said, notes of pride evident in her voice.

(Meanwhile on the Hyperion's bridge)

"Raynor, what the F**K was that?" Valerian Mengsk demanded.

"Kerrigan" Raynor replied

"She's' not dead?" was the 'surprised' response

"She's de-infested … mostly" Raynor said

"I guess that's mostly good news" valerian conceded

"She's going to need some time to adjust" he said

"I guess so; she was infested for four years" Valerian said "I certainly don't want to be on the team tasked with getting her used to Terran life again."

"Neither do I, but someone's gotta do it" Raynor said

"I'm going to report that The Queen of Blades is dead to father. It's been nice doing business with you." Valerian said

"You too" Raynor said ending the call

"You still love her don't you" Matt asked

"More than you know" Raynor replied

After deciding on a new course to unoccupied space and leaving Matt to do what he does best Raynor left the bridge to check on Kerrigan.

Raynor arrived at Kerrigan's quarters to shouting and a Marine flying out of her quarters and hitting the wall opposite the door in the hallway.

Apparently Kerrigan was having an internal crisis as what Damon had explained to him as the small, Human, part of her made a break for the surface. Kerrigan was hunched over in the middle of the room clearly struggling with an internal debate.

Raynor cautiously edged his head around the corner and saw that Kerrigan was wearing shorts and a tank top, still not being used to clothing after running around relying on the androgynous-ness of her Zerg form for any sort of decency for four years. They were taking it in small steps, whilst still being decent enough to be presentable.

"You can buzz off too" Kerrigan snapped at him when she sensed him.

"I'm just checking" he mentioned defensively stepping out of cover.

"I need to … sort some things out, and I don't need you interfering" she said

"I'll go now" Jim said making for the bar before Kerrigan got angry

"You do that" Kerrigan said more irritated

Jim got the marine back to the outfitters to get him out of his suit, the servos again breaking when they got thrown around like that. They normally didn't break this easily, but on the other hand they aren't meant to be thrown around too badly as most grenades that could throw a Marine around like that would also kill the Marine.

(Meanwhile in Damon's quarters)

"MOM!" the little bundle of energy chirruped loudly, blowing Damon out of his stupor.

"Was that you?" Damon asked the small Zergling.

The Zergling just cocked its head to the side as if trying to figure out a response before it nodded its head. "Mom?" it asked, like a small child

"So you can parrot speech? Izsha what did you give me?" Damon said to himself he got up and drank the rest of the coffee that he had brought back to his room. Then got a crazy and stupid idea that would likely end himself in a lot of trouble, the only problem was that he didn't realise that it was all that.

Raynor was checking in on his other passenger when, as soon as he opened the door, he was pounced by a purple streak before having his face assaulted by a frantic tongue.

"Down T'zu, get off him!" Damon said sternly.

The Zergling stopped immediately, "sorry" it whimpered before retreating and heading to his favourite spot under Damon's bed.

"I'm not even going to ask" said Raynor who was still trying to process what had happened.

"Coffee" said Damon ashamedly, then futilely tried not to laugh as he saw Raynor wiping his face clean. "Turns out he can parrot speech too, I'm still trying to figure out how he learned to do that or where he got the vocal capacity to perform like that, he definitely not an average Zergling"

"Just don't give him caffeine again" said Raynor and at Damon's confused expression, explained "coffee"

"Gotcha"

"I was going to check in but it would seem you don't need much provoking to start causing trouble"

"Hey!"

"I'm just saying" he said with a grin "you haven't been on for even a day, and yet you've caused two major commotions, you're worse than I was back in the day"

"I try" was the smug reply

"We'll need to start training you soon, you should get some rest"

"I learned from the swarm how to fight, just ask the platoon back on char I sent to the creep"

"I know, but you haven't ever fired a gun have you?"

"Admittedly no but I did make up for it"

"I'll get you in with the spectres tomorrow, till then you might want to rest up"

"Right then, goodnight"

"Seeya tomorrow"

**Author's notes**

**Yeah I know it's a shorter chapter than most of the already brief one I write but then I don't have the time and material to write another 500-1000 words**

**I plan to make a larger break from the canon soon (so far I think that besides the OC's its been rather true to wings of liberty and the start of Heart of the Swarm.)**

**Updates will be as time permits, not any sort of schedule though I try and keep them to a minimum of daily.**

**Kane: the psychic scream was a mostly humour thing about Kerrigan being horrified at her new appearance and Abathur will be rejoining the story soon when I decide to finally break from canon**

**R&R and Enjoy**

**Thanks for reading**


	5. 5 New Developments

**I do not own StarCraft 2, Blizzard does. If there is a game/movie reference or quote, I do not own the movie/game as it belongs to the people that made that movie/game. However all OC's including Damon, T'zu and blade are mine.**

"We should move on I think, were running out of hand-to-hand instructors" the spectre said.

"I warned you that I trained against hunter-killers for three years" Damon replied

"Where's the wreckage? Didn't a train just hit me?" asked the latest spectre, waking up from the brutal thrashing he had just received. The medics carried him back to medibay before anything worse could happen to him

"Brudda I nevah seen anyting fight like that before" Blade said, catching the knife he was throwing into the air.

It was true, Blade thought, he had never seen anyone so feral or wild when they fought; and the fact that he could see the psionics at work in every blow that Damon threw just compounded his worries. He would need to watch Damon closely; he could feel bad things on this kid's horizon.

"We've seen the handiwork that you pulled off on char" the instructor continued "but Raynor tells me that you've never used one of these before" he said holding up a pistol to Damon.

"No. I just threw spears or directed something that had used one, if the need arose" Damon replied taking the pistol from the instructor. It was a small angular thing that weighed down his arms considerably, and just from the feel he could tell that whatever it did it was not going to be gentle.

"just line up the front sight with the rear ones, hit the safety near the trigger and squeeze the trigg-" was all the instructor got out before a loud bang, followed by a steady stream of curses sounded throughout the hangar they were practicing in.

Damon had used infested Terran memories that he had lifted off of them during his time with the swarm, to fire the pistol, and had the recoil force the pistol into his nose, almost breaking it. By sheer luck he managed to hit the hologram of a Hydralisk that they were using for target practice. By sheer bad luck though his nose was now bleeding, and was bleeding not in red but in a weird purple-red colour.

The following situation could be described in one word. PANIC.

Damon had no fewer than six guns pointed at him, and the medic had fainted; Blade just stared in disbelief and the instructor almost shot him with his other pistol. Various SCV crews were scrambling to evacuate the hangar.

(One hour later)

"Well Sir, it seems I have some bad news." Stetman reported to Kerrigan, whose concern for him had brought her to Damon's side, and Raynor, who, whilst initially more concerned for the safety of his crew was starting to grow as concerned for Damon as Kerrigan.

"What you got?" Raynor asked

"Sir, it seems that Damon is heavily infested, with scans showing Zerg DNA almost everywhere in his body" he said "they also show that, among other things, both halves of his brain have been fused together." Stetman replied

"Meaning?" Raynor asked

"well Sir the theory is that uniting the two halves like that would cause a severe increase in psionic ability" Stetman explained "on another note he seems to have picked up increased muscle and bone density, with several minerals reinforcing both to an amazing degree" Stetman replied with a nerd -like passion

"I don't need you drooling on him, what else does that report say?" Kerrigan shot at him concerned for Damon

"there seems to be some other more specific alterations to his brain structure and chemistry; but it's too subtle to tell what it could be, his skin seems to be hardening. At this rate I would give him a month before it becomes noticeably like Zerg Chitin" Stetman finished

Kerrigan blinked at the long list before asking into the air "Abathur; what did you do?"

"What was that Sarah?" Raynor asked

"Almost three years ago now Damon blew apart one of my hives psionically. Abathur my Geneticist said he had been working on a parasite that had gotten loose in the development stages. I thought it had died" Kerrigan explained

"But it didn't, did it?" Raynor asked

"The dangers of working with something with such free will meant that he could lie to me. I guess I must have missed this one" Kerrigan replied casually.

"I know someone that might be able to reverse this, I'll talk with matt and we'll head there now." Said Raynor

"You do that" Kerrigan said lost in her memories

Before Raynor could leave though, Stetman called out to him "also sir, before you go, Damon has been saying that he has been able to hear … T'zu I think he calls it, parroting speech, but it would seems that he's hearing things we aren't in the squeaks that it makes" he said

"Again, you're gonna have to explain that to me in clearer terms" Raynor said

"Sir, I'm not 100% sure but I think the case may be that he can understand Zerg as well"

Raynor looked to Kerrigan before she said "don't look at me like that, Abathur was the one who infested him, I had to read minds back then"

"I'm just going to put faith in that. Personally though, my last encounter with T'zu didn't exactly leave me wanting another visit"

Kerrigan laughed as she read his mind and saw what had happened.

(Some time later in orbit above Dr Hanson's lab)

"So Ariel you're the resident Zerg expert here, what do you think?" Raynor asked "barring Kerrigan, of course"

"I don't know if I can do anything on this. The Zerg virus is more of a virulent parasite and we have had some success in reversing the effects, but we haven't seen anything like Damon here"

"_**On every angle, Damon's case is certainly … unique" the**_ Protoss scientist agreed his normally yellow armour was exchanged for a less elegant standard researcher's lab coat.

When they had arrived over the colony over haven, Ariel upon hearing of Damon's case had practically leapt at a chance to study this new infestation. She had arrived with several researchers accompanying her, most of them were humans but a large number were also Protoss.

"I don't know if we can safely reverse the damage without dangerously destabilizing his DNA, the cure would be a lot more horrifically mutagenic then the disease" said another researcher

Kerrigan just pouted some more in the corner. It had taken a lot of convincing and compromise on Raynor's part to make sure that the Protoss would not kill her. Eventually they had conceded that The Queen of Blades and not Sarah Kerrigan had committed those atrocities. This didn't stop a hostile air from forming between the two parties, leaving Sarah sulking in a corner like a small child whilst the Protoss researchers worked on Damon's condition.

"Why don't you use the Artefact that de-infested Kerrigan?" Hanson asked

"Because Kerrigan still has the DNA; the mutations that result from their expression seems to be removed and the DNA deactivated, but where the DNA is deactivated in Kerrigan it seems to have had an opposite effect on Damon" said another researcher

"_**There is no Overmind or one that is of his influence around to shape him into a monster. There is a possibility that, given steady guidance, he may be able to turn the swarm away from its current path" **_said the resident Templar taking great care to ignore Kerrigan

"I do have feelings" Kerrigan said exasperated at the hostility

"_**I am aware of that, however I prefer to insult them whilst I can" **_the Protoss replied, with a touch of humour creeping into the mental voice that he was projecting

Kerrigan just crossed her arms tighter than before and returned to sulking.

"I'm sorry Raynor but I don't think we can cure him without doing irreversible damage to him or possibly killing him."

"It's okay, and I think I may just want to keep him around" Raynor said "he's only a kid. I don't think I could sleep at night if I just killed him. Also whilst we are talking de-infestation I was thinking that maybe I could leave that artefact with you until we have to go, it might help against the Zerg virus"

"Thanks, we've been having problems removing the parasite completely without damaging the host's central nervous system" Hanson said grateful

"We'll be staying for a while. We don't really have anywhere to go until either Mengsk falls out of office or there's something new to fight. We aren't going to let Mengsk attack as soon as we're gone and take it for himself though so we will need it back when we go" Raynor mentioned

"I understand; thanks we've been needing this for a long time" Ariel replied almost tearful

"Doctor I think you need to see this!" said one of the researchers who was performing some scans on T'zu

"But how did that happen?" Ariel asked when she saw the readings

"What is it?" Raynor asked disliking being left out of the loop

"_**It would seem that his 'pet' has some of his genetic code in him" **_a Protoss researcher replied

"Meaning?" Raynor asked

"Hopefully its nothing, but it could also mean some abnormalities in the 'ling" said a researcher

"Abnormalities? Like how?" Raynor asked

"Well seeing as Damon is already a powerful Psi user it could mean limited telepathy" Ariel said

"He did tell me that he had heard it 'talking' to him" Raynor said

"That's possibly it then" Ariel said

"Is there any more secret plots and surprises? This already enough to last me a lifetime" Raynor said

"We'll keep you posted as they come up" Ariel said with a grin

"_**he has more surprises in him than anything else I know of, including Zeratul when he does make appearances before the council with any sort of news"**_ the Templar said

"And now we live with him." Raynor said almost sarcastically "if you need me ill be in my room, I need a break from all this craziness" leaving the room before anyone could say anything to the contrary

"I might follow suit, I haven't been able to sleep lately" Kerrigan said _**"and I'm might as well leave before I'm left here with the templar"**_ she psionically said to everyone in the room eliciting a snicker from some of the research staff

Ariel turned to the research staff and simply said "now that we have a Xel'naga artefact that can UN-infest Terrans I say we evacuate all Protoss from the planet and run some tests"

A researcher sarcastically said "Hooray, another round of coffee and all-nighters again"

Inside the Quarantine though Damon sat there as the blue light passed over and through him again petting T'zu all the while and thought to himself two words

THIS. SUCKS.

**Author's Notes**

**Hi all. This was a fun chapter to write and I hope it is fun to read as well.**

**I mostly go with the flow as I write these and then I hand them to you as soon as the spell checker has finished with them.**

**Thanks for all the reviews feel free to ask questions in your reviews and I will address any issues in the next chapter either here or in the story.**

**Kane: T'zu is able to punch through the power armour marines wear with his back mounted claws and can jump off walls and such at high speed for a powerful tackle, factor in the foot mounted claws and his teeth and he could probably Fuck. You. Up. Bad. Also he is a unique strain designed by Izsha as a companion to Damon using his DNA. As for Damon, given his psionic abilities and physical skills the sky truly is the limit (to how high he can throw you).**

**R&R and enjoy**

**I enjoy reading your reviews and treat everything you send me (minus flames, which coincidently I have yet to receive) as valuable input. I encourage you to ask questions as this gives me something to help flesh out frustrating chapters.**

**That was a lot of notes. I'll try and keep it to less next time**


	6. 6 a new swarm, a new rationale

**I do not own StarCraft 2 Blizzard does. I do not own any movies/games referenced to in this fanfiction. Those movies/games belong to their respective creator. I do own any OC's that are mentioned in this fic.**

And my dreams they aren't as empty

As my conscience seems, to be

And I 'm always- always lonely

My love is vengeance

It's never free …

Damon opened his eyes and put the acoustic guitar back in its case before realising that anything that wasn't nailed down in the little grove he spent time alone and meditating was floating in mid-air. Upon realising this though everything fell with a loud crash and/or a smash as the telekinesis wore off.

He rubbed his arms, a habit he had gotten into when the chitinous plates had started growing on them, and started to clean up the mess his unintended meditation had caused.

"So much for Zen, hey T'zu" he said to the Zergling who was now as big as an Alsatian and had a minor telepathic connection with him.

"_**It was cool" **_the creature thought to him

"True but now I have a mess to clean up." Damon replied

In the month and a half since they had arrived at Haven, Damon had undergone a slow metamorphosis, with hard chitinous plates now covering most of the outside of his arms and legs and parts of his chest and his hair starting to dreadlock. There was a pair of hard points just under the skin near his shoulder blades but they couldn't tell what they could become just yet. His blood was now an odd purple colour and his eyes now glowed a strong Zerg yellow at all times. He had long ago surpassed the spectres in everything but non-assisted shooting, but he was slowly learning exactly how to place two bullets in the same hole a second apart.

Kerrigan on the other hand had decided to keep the dreadlocks as a memento of her time with the swarm and now had long red hair growing in between the mustard yellow tendrils. She and Raynor had gotten back together after some time, and Damon was treated almost as if he was Kerrigan's adoptive child. Her eyes still glowed if she was angry but that was less frequent than when she had first come aboard.

Raynor had kept himself busy, with Mengsk now without any sort of pull or support in his own dominion, Raynor had established a more permanent settlement on haven but there had been increasing numbers of reports of hybrids but whenever he had responded there wasn't any sign of them by the time Raynor got there.

The Zerg swarm wasn't leaderless the Brood mothers preventing the swarms from tearing each other apart though without Kerrigan or someone/something similar they didn't have a purpose, they had identified most planets that had been infested and simply stayed away from the swarms that were idling now, but still defended themselves fiercely.

"I think it's time to head home now" Damon said to T'zu, like the swarm he felt without a purpose and was simply idling his days training himself for nothing and biding his time until something did happen.

"_**Already?" **_T'zu thought back. He liked spending time here at the grove.

"You really want to walk home in the dark?"

"_**AWWW" **_was its reply

"I'll race you home" Damon said hefting his pack

The response was a small purple streak shooting off into the distance. Damon gave him a small 5 second head start before racing after the small Zergling. They were making good progress until Damon almost tripped over, of all things a Hydralisk that had been lying in prone. He instinctively called T'zu back to him before he hit the ground face first and slid for several feet before grinding to a stop.

"_**You okay mom?"**_ the Zergling asked before allowing Damon to use T'zu to pull himself up

"Yeah I just tripped over something" Damon replied

A hunter-killer then rose from the forest floor, knowing that discovery of him would be inevitable now, bowing his head to Damon

Damon immediately saw the claw marks above his eye and recognized this one as one of Kerrigan's personal guard that had been off-world at the time of the Terran assault on char.

"Scar, is that you?"

The hydralisk just nodded to him and gestured for him to follow, heading in the direction of town. When they had arrived at their house that they shared with Kerrigan and Jim it was an hour after they had meant to get home.

The first thing to greet him was Kerrigan who was in her civvies, and Raynor who, when he wasn't flying around the sector chasing hybrids and providing disaster relief for fringe world colonies, worked as the local sheriff. Both looked visibly shaken, but the thing that unsettled him the most was the voice which hissed noticeably. There was a hive queen in their house.

"Ah, I see that Scar managed to find you at last, my lord" she said almost reverently

"More I stumbled across him, but yeah" Damon replied.

"So now that Damon's here, ya mind explaining to us what you're doing here?" Raynor asked the queen like he had been trying to pry the answer from her all afternoon.

"Since Kerrigan's defeat, the swarm has been without leadership, without purpose, recently though the Brood mothers have felt a psychic presence. We have managed to track that presence to this planet, and if I am not mistaken its source is with me in this room" she said indicating Damon during the last part of her speech.

"So you want to take him back to lead the swarm?" Kerrigan asked.

"In essence? Yes. Though he will have to reclaim much of it like you did" the queen said to her "many of the brood mothers have separated from the swarm."

Kerrigan felt a maternal concern for Damon for the first time. It was such an overpowering emotion that she almost didn't want him to go. But she knew that Damon had no place here, his appearance making sure that he wasn't ever going to be accepted in a colony with such deep scars brought about by the Zerg. Especially seeing as the de-infested Terrans didn't have particularly fond memories of their infestation.

In the end it was Raynor who broke the silence though "it's your choice champ." It was clear to everyone that during the short time he had known Damon, in spite of all the time that they had spent butting heads against one another, that Damon had grown on him.

Damon looked to his impromptu parents, seeing them wanting him to stay but also seeing that they knew that he could never fit in, and then to the Queen who, in spite of the lack of free will that was a common trait among most of the Zerg, looked desperate and scared.

Damon recoiled at the flood of emotion he felt and looked back to the queen. He could see that she was scared of how uncertain her future now was, scared of this place and above all things scared that she might not live to see another sunrise.

This last revelation dragged painful memories from the back corner of Damon's mind; memories from three and a half years ago; when he had been taken in by the swarm. He remembered feeling that pain as his world had crashed down around his ears. He felt his eyes welling up and brushed the tears from his eyes, it was a pain that Kerrigan had always tried to heal but could never truly fix.

He turned to the queen and said "I'll go, not because you ask but because I can do more good leading the Zerg as a force for good, and protect those who can't protect themselves."

"I don't blame you" Raynor said "but are you sure you can do that?"

"I know it will be rocky to start out but I know I can do this." Damon replied.

The queen watched the exchange with amusement. She would be sure to grab a genetic sample for Abathur to remake him, he wouldn't last a week showing such sympathy in the swarm

"the overlord is here" she simply said moving outside and crawling into the transport sacs and waited for scar Damon and that strange Zergling of his which he had named T'zu to follow suit.

After a lot of sobbing and promises of return, Damon eventually turned and joined the Queen on the overlord, T'zu soon followed after a small exchange between him and Kerrigan.

"I know he'll be fine" Jim said to Kerrigan.

"I can't help but worry though" she replied.

"I don't think that you need to, he can handle himself" Jim comforted her.

"Let's head back inside before the zealots arrive" Kerrigan said. No doubt the Protoss had detected the leviathan in orbit above Haven and the unauthorised Hunter-killer, Hive queen and overlord on their front lawn and would not be happy when they didn't find their corpses there.

On the leviathan Damon met an old friend

"I never expected to see you again, at least not since the Queen disappeared" she said

"The same to you Izsha, she was De-infested though, she only disappeared into Terran life again." He replied.

"The swarm awaits your command" she said.

"Then lets head home, I wish to see char once more" he commanded

"As you wish, my lord" Izsha replied

Damon turned and settled into his new quarters and worked on commanding the swarm. He would need to be able to by the time he met whatever brood mother had found him

**Author's notes**

**This chapter is a lot more serious than other recent chapters**

**It would seem that there is a startling lack of feedback and reviews, come on guys, I may stop posting cause I think you hate me if I don't get some reviews**

**R&R and Enjoy and thanks for reading**


	7. 7 a twisted tale

**In this entire story I only own the fan created plot, any OC's including Damon, T'zu and Scar plus any OC creations such as new Zerg units etc. I do not own StarCraft in the slightest as blizzard already owns that.**

Kerrigan slept in the bed she shared with Jim Raynor. They owned this house on Haven but Jim was looking to move back to Mar Sara. Again. Though Kerrigan didn't mind where they were, just that they were together and that nothing would separate them again short of death. The room was filled with her state of happiness until she felt a cold presence enter.

Instantly she snapped her eyes open and looked, the darkness almost welcoming her eyes once more. At first she didn't see anything but the ragged shadows in the room until upon a second inspection she saw him.

Zeratul did NOT look happy, despite a lack of facial features with which to express emotion.

"I wish I could say that this was a pleasant surprise if it weren't for the fact that I was just sleeping" She said waking Raynor

Zeratul almost mentally shouted at them _**"WHAT DID YOU DO?"**_

This outburst immediately shocked both of them wide awake, Raynor lowering the pistol he had reflexively grabbed and aimed at the source of the commotion.

Kerrigan just blinked in shock "what?"

"_**THE VOID IS TEARING ITSELF APART AND REFORMING! FATE IS TANGLING AND REWRITING ITSELF ANEW, WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?"**_ he shouted at them

"Calm down there buddy, this is the first I've heard of this" Raynor said

Zeratul looked at him hard, through scrutinizing eyes and relaced visibly _**"you two have done something, and it has caused a collapse of the cosmic forces which drive the universe" **_he said

"It can't be that bad, can it?" Kerrigan asked, panic edging into her voice

"_**It is as bad as it seems, and fate has dealt us all a new hand to play. Some of the cards stay the same, but others have changed wildly"**_ Zeratul said.

"Do you have an Ihan crystal we can see? This is a rather inconvenient time for us" Raynor asked

"_**Of course, though they are not my memories but a collection, many of which I have gained from the holy preservers"**_ Zeratul replied

"Thanks, always good to hear from you buddy" Raynor said

"_**I also bear gifts from the one known as Damon."**_ Zeratul replied producing two packages from underneath his cloak, which he was never without, and handed one to Kerrigan and the other to Raynor.

They both looked at Zeratul sceptically; Kerrigan wondered how he had managed to sneak on-board a leviathan and past all of the Zerg countermeasures against such an incursion.

"_**He caused quite a stir at the gift store he stopped at"**_ Zeratul remarked with a satisfied look on his face, remembering how the clerks had pissed themselves when he had entered to get them to wrap up his "gifts".

Kerrigan gave a chuckle when she picked up on the mental image Zeratul had accidently broadcast.

"Zeratul, you kinda have us in an awkward position, could you um… step out for a bit?" Jim asked

If Zeratul had human physiology he would have blushed as he realized what Raynor meant and promptly left the room.

After they were decent Kerrigan and Raynor looked at their packages and read the cards attached.

_Sarah, thanks for all you have done for me, I thought it would be nasty to leave you with a void where I used to be; so l got Izsha to perform a favour for me. You should know how to open this one._

Kerrigan looked at the contents of the glass container that he had sent her, immediately recognizing the object within the green sludge as an inert yet decided Zerg egg. She reached out mentally and found a teeming consciousness full of sealed energy just waiting for her.

She took a while but eventually worked up the signal to cause the egg to hatch. She had expected it, but having a small Zergling with a curious red pigmentation and an energetic personality emerging just left her laughing at the irony of the gesture. Of course it had her DNA.

Raynor's gift was a little more serious

_Raynor, in the month and a half I have known you for, you were like a father to me. I thought that I would provide you with coordinates to the subterranean hives on Mar Sara. When I visit I will not need them nor do I want to leave such a plague on your home world alone so feel free to do whatever you wish with them._

He pulled a datapad from his package looked to Kerrigan's gift laughed with her some, looked over the datapad and then left the room to talk with Zeratul before he had to go again.

(Meanwhile on the command Leviathan)

"That was … original" Izsha and the Hive queen both remarked almost loosing themselves laughing.

"I wonder how long the stories about that will circulate" Damon said grinning from ear to ear

They had landed Damon on a nearby Terran colony where he, in spite of the now rather visible differences between him and regular Humans, had gotten them to package up two gifts that he had used the last of his pocket money to purchase and then handed them to Zeratul who in spite of being rather angry at Damon throwing a wrench into the works of the carefully woven strands of fate had shared a chuckle with him. He had a feeling that they would have performed it for free though if he had asked.

"Anyways" Damon said calming down some "how long until Char?"

"We can be there in a few hours" Izsha said

"Great" Damon said with some relief that the trip would be short "By the way, which Brood mother sent you to come and get me?"

"My lord, the Brood mother has asked that she be the one to tell you, though I can say that she is currently on Char, she had responded to the recall of the Zerg just before the Queens … De-infestation" was her reply, the venom quite apparent in her voice as she spat the last word.

This set Damon's brain ticking. This either meant that she was mysterious enough or scared enough of him to try and stay anonymous for as long as possible, the former meant that she was likely one of the greater brood mothers, the latter meant that she was likely one of the lesser Brood Mothers.

After realising that he had drifted off accidently, he simply replied "no matter I will find out soon anyways"

Taking T'zu with him he walked to his room being followed closely by Scar. Scar was one of those success stories that are few and far between, he had fought during the Great War during the Hydralisk stage of his growth, had grown into the fearsome hunter-killer he was now during the brood wars, having gained his namesake from a Devouring One who had managed to claw him. Afterwards he was one of Kerrigan's more trusted bodyguards and had been among the group that had found him when had blown up his first hive (he had done it a few times afterwards accidently as well)

As he entered his new Quarters, Kerrigan's old ones, Scar just curled up into a special port which disguised him cleverly next to the door. Damon just lay there in the sleeping pod and after his initial attack of claustrophobia settled down to sleep T'zu curled up jealously next to him, causing Damon to realise just before he fell asleep that he had been ignoring T'zu.

He woke up the next morning early more out of an ingrained habit resultant from living with any sort of military (the swarm tended to get up early as well) for a large portion of his life. He practiced his orders on T'zu who responded well when an idea occurred to him and, with T'zu's consent he took over completely. He saw the world from his friend's eyes and tilted both their heads. Everything looked as if he had just smeared orange jam over a camera lens, but he could feel the energy and power in the Zerglings small limbs and took off down the hall, grabbed a small breakfast of creep for the both of them and returned to his room before he finally released T'zu from his control.

He then made sure that he hadn't caused any sort of harm to T'zu. His control was patchy at best and he had accidently rammed T'zu into a wall on a few occasions but he had failed to cause and serious permanent harm and maybe a bruise at worst; one of the advantages of your walls being made of flesh which tended to be rather spongy.

"_**Ouch mom"**_ it said to him

He gave T'zu some of the specially formulated treats that the Haven scientists had formulated for him as a way of saying sorry for not being able to reverse the infestation as a way of saying thanks and sorry to his constant companion. He munched on the creep which now tasted much better than he remembered it did, possibly a result of either his tongue or his brain being affected by the infestation, and meditated like the Protoss had taught him to.

(Some time later, surface of Char, Ruins of the Swarm)

Damon looked around and saw the devastation that the Xel'naga artefact had wrought and wondered why the swarm hadn't rebuilt yet.

"The Swarm has been without purpose." The queen said next to him seeing his thoughts written clearly on his regrettably still human face.

"My lord, Welcome back to the swarm" said a familiar voice

Damon turned around and saw a Greater Brood Mother.

the brood mothers had been split into two castes to provide greater control over the swarm just before the fall of the Queen. The Greater Brood mothers had more direct control over the lesser caste than actual control over the swarm but were more than capable should their charges all happen to die. The lesser, which were simply powered up queens directly controlled the swarm and followed the orders of their greater, more specialised sisters, as well as they could

"I am Isis, my lord, and have tried to hold the swarm together to the best of my abilities" she said "but without the iron will of the queen of blades it has become increasingly hard to stop them from fighting"

"The name strikes me as familiar" Damon said.

"That is because I was named after one of the old gods from Terra" she said with a smirk (if it could be called that)

"Well I can see a few things that we will need to work on. We need a base to work from." Damon said to the Brood Mother.

"Very well" she said "I have also prepared an evolution chrysalis for you, it will prevent the pain of waiting for you to finish transforming"

"ok, but I want to see a base when I come back." He said being careful not to tread on anything sharp with his bare feet. He had gotten rid of his shoes as his feet had started elongating themselves and had been growing some small claws but he still wore a hoodie and pants as he still didn't want to be running around in the buff.

He allowed the drone to seal him in and quickly felt his mind overwhelmed and he fell unconscious in the dark safety of the chrysalis.

Over the next week Isis attacked the problem of rebuilding the hive cluster with a zeal that a rare few possessed, trying to outdo herself every time she undertook an endeavour and accidentally caused the drones to mutate faster than they ever had; Though Isis never noticed this, she was creating a grand headquarters with a fervour that would put even the most single minded Protoss foot soldiers to shame.

When the Chrysalis bore Damon to full maturity there was an air of anticipation as the Brood awaited the momentous occasion. This time though there was no angry telepathic calling to attract armies of Protoss and Terrans to witness the birth of a new leader of the swarm.

Damon emerged followed by psionic thunder erupting as he flexed his new mind's powers. He now stood an extra foot taller, and what had been a sharp ridge under his back was now three pairs (totalling six) clawed tendrils, similar to the spine crawlers standing a constant vigil on the outskirts of the base. His feet were now digitigrade and he would have fallen over if it hadn't been for the flattened tail that he now used for a careful balance.

His entire body minus the new tendrils was covered in a suit of chitinous armour resembling the pictures of medieval plate mail. His face still remained mostly human but now also sported a pair of mandibles similar to a Zerglings. His claws averaged about an inch in length on both his 'hands' and his feet.

Little of his human appearance remained; but his eyes still burned with a fire and compassion and clearly he had not had a purpose forced upon him by a higher power than himself and still remained very much human in mind.

T'zu, who hadn't left his side ever since he had stepped into the chrysalis, was the first to break the stunned silence _**"wow, mom you look good" **_he said.

This caused Damon to look down and what he saw of himself stunned him. This was going to take some getting used to he thought, before he noticed the Swarm eagerly awaiting his commands. He thought hard for a second and came up with a few tasks which kept a good portion of them busy. Mostly though, it was just scouting to find anything else nearby on Char.

He had never commanded any size force before let alone a brood but he managed to handle the sudden responsibility easily and Isis quickly guided him in the general management of the hive sensing the awkwardness of those first few moments.

Soon Damon settled into his new life, slowly building the strength of the brood, and looking to the horizon for a time when he could set out and rejoin the world.

**Author's notes**

**Ok sorry for the rush ending but I couldn't think of a decent ending for the chapter.**

**Kane: bloody hell; get yourself a bloody account so that I can bloody PM you. Kerrigan in future will be able to control small squads and if she wishes to risk immobility as she concentrates even run a hive for some time but being uninfested means that there is no hardwired circuit that she can use to send the right signals and it is a lot harder to command the Zerg. As for ideas for new Zerg you are welcome to try and pm me with pictures or ideas.**

**Mayflower : its just I was getting 1-3 reviews between chapter posts and suddenly the keyboards fall silent when I posted number 5. I got worried but was mostly joking when I said that. I joke like that a lot and realise how lame it was the next day a LOT.**

**I strongly urge you to R&R and again Enjoy yourselves reading this.**

**Also if you think I may have written anything that will mean that I need to bump the rating of the fic at all please tell me. I don't look forward to bans. I'm just worried that some of the chapters content is a little sketch.**


	8. 8 a reunion and an enemy

**I do not own StarCraft 2 or any other game/movie referenced to or mentioned in this Fic. I only own OC's such as Isis, Damon, T'zu, Scar etc.**

Damon looked out of the grate to the vent he was in. the Terran Marine had no idea that he was there, despite having all that fancy gear in his suit working hard to try and detect him.

Damon just smiled reached outwards with his mind and vaporised the fluid surrounding the Terrans brain. The result was a giant build in pressure in the Marine's skull ending in a spectacular popping noise able to be heard even through the suit the Marine was wearing and a slight trickle of blood escaping the visor before the now lifeless suit collapsed with a loud crash against the metal floor.

Damon flinched as he felt the Marines life extinguish in a wave of agony, removed the vents grate and inspected his handiwork. The Dominion Mark was boldly emblazoned on the Marine's chest and the suit was sensing that its occupant was dead was starting to power down. Damon didn't even bother removing the faceplate of the Marine; he had had enough of that already and simply squashed the fleeing Neural parasite underfoot, resisting the urge to puke again as he felt it squish in-between his toes.

T'zu had been behind him in the vent and was now crawling out, shaking himself off and sniffing around for any other hostiles. He chirruped and indicated a direction. He had smelt the Hybrid once more and he followed the scent again.

They travelled down the hall both ready for another surprise attack again. The hybrid had somehow gained control of a small brood of Zerg and was using them to wreak havoc upon surrounding colonies, and had also been using them to impede their progress towards him. This old Terran military base had so many twists and turns to it and they would have lost the Hybrid long ago if it hadn't been for T'zu being able to pick up his scent and as they turned the corner they found a surprise.

T'zu barked, before jumping and surprising a slightly smaller Red coloured Zergling resulting in the two destroying the hallway as they rolled around angrily biting and clawing at each other, trying to gain the upper hand.

When a familiar white suit faded into the visible spectrum however Damon immediately called T'zu off, T'zu gave the other Zergling who had surprised both of them with its Strength and intelligence (on par with T'zu himself) an almighty kick into the broken light and dashed to his side.

The Ghost then aimed a C-14 Canister rifle at them before flinching in surprise and then tearing her visor off and lowering the rifle

"Damon?" Kerrigan asked

"In the flesh and the shell" Damon added smiling.

"This is certainly a surprise" Kerrigan said looking him up and down seeing the new Damon

"I see you kept the dreads" Damon said indicating her hair

"I see you got your own" Kerrigan replied smiling.

"I see you got the package" Damon said

"Yeah, where exactly did you get my DNA?" Kerrigan asked curiously

"There was a few … samples that you had left lying about on the leviathan" Damon said looking about for a reason to change the subject.

"I'm here because the Hybrid is; you?" Kerrigan asked beating him to the punch

"The same" Damon replied

"Seeing as our objective is the same, we should team up." Kerrigan said flatly

Damon nodded in agreement; he had had some trouble avoiding the infested Terrans and Zergling patrols wandering the halls.

T'zu sniffed at the Red Zergling curiously allowing her to return the favour. T'zu recognized the Kerrigan's scent and the Zerg scent and remembered the days before 'the light from the metal hives' had changed 'the Angel' as he called her, for in his eyes her face was one of divine beauty.

The small crimson Zergling who was called Azura by her mom returned the favour smelling the scent that she had on the other Zerglings but also strangely similar to the Terrans as well and was almost exactly like the tall one near him.

Damon could feel Azura sniffing around his feet and was hard pressed to not laugh; it tickled like crazy. He just bent down and gave her a scratch behind the ears and gaining approval from Kerrigan talked to her directly (this involving telepathy more than anything else with Zerglings not being able to understand much beyond that and the hissing, clicking and chirruping noises that the Zerg used to communicate between one another) as they followed Tzu's nose towards the hybrid

"_**Well hello there little one"**_ he said to Azura.

"_**Umm … hello?"**_ was the nervous response.

"_**Don't worry, I won't hurt you"**_ he said.

"_**Mom said never to talk to strangers"**_ was the sharp and still fearful reply. _**"Especially ones in my head"**_

"_**But I am not a stranger"**_ Damon said calmly.

"_**Prove it!"**_ Azura challenged.

Damon pressed memories upon Azura's mind saying _**"I was there when you were born, and am a friend of your mothers."**_

"_**Who are you?"**_ Azura said awed at him and the information that he had just shared with her.

"_**My name is Damon, and the Black Zergling there is called T'zu"**_ he responded indicating himself first and then T'zu _**"T'zu was a creation of your mothers and has been with me since he was born, just as I worked hard to bring you about and give you to your mom"**_

"_**You created me?"**_ she said

"_**In a sense, yes"**_ he said seeing where this was going

"_**So … your my dad?"**_ she said looking up to him, at least she got the term right.

Kerrigan, listening in on the conversation stared daggers at Damon.

"_**You can call it that if you want"**_ he said ignoring the sudden flash of hostility _**"you are incredibly special in that regard."**_

"_**Why?"**_ Azura asked

"_**Most of those like you don't have parents in that sense"**_ Damon explained, ignoring the combat knife slowly sliding out of its sheath _**"you do though and that makes you incredibly special"**_

"_**Why is that?"**_ Azura said shocked

"_**Because you have us to look after you, and we both care for you, your mom especially so."**_ He said

Kerrigan almost dropped the knife when she heard this instead settling for cutting her hand. Some healing gel and some deleted expletives later, they continued in earnest.

As they reached the final door the two psychics could feel a malevolent presence on the other side. Damon prepared himself, mostly by psyching himself up for the fight and Kerrigan checked that the many gadgets on her belt still remained and went invisible.

they were about to open the door when a powerful force ripped it out of its frame (a considerable feat seeing as it was designed to take a full 120mm blast from a siege tank and not even scratch) and were greeted by a swirling vortex of pale blue fire.

The team was thankfully off to the side trying to open the door and were able to dodge the swirling inferno, albeit narrowly, before they ran inside the room. Greeting them was unmistakably a Hybrid with the pale blue colouration and looking like the bastard child of an Archon and a Hydralisk. It looked to be trying to physically regenerate in this room

"_**So you come at last"**_ it said, an almost stereotypical arrogance evident in its every psi-word _**"I look forward to this; yours will be a painful demise I can assure you"**_

Damon and Kerrigan looked at one another and leapt into action followed closely by their Zerglings.

Damon was fast, as in blur of speed fast, and dodged every psionic thunderbolt that the Hybrid hurled at him whilst trying to close to a distance he could retaliate from. Kerrigan, being the slowest of the group was only safe via her ability to phase in and out of the visible spectrum and her much more refined Psi powers allowing her to shield herself effectively. The two Zerglings did as all Zerglings do during combat, they dodged the odd random object thrown at them and whilst the Hybrid was busy, leapt onto him clawing and biting at the abomination.

This proved to be a lethal distraction as the Hybrid then stopped throwing thunder and blocking rifle shots and threw the two Zerglings off of him psionically. Kerrigan taking advantage of this lined up a round and fired just as Damon used his heavily muscled tentacles to impale the hybrid. The Hybrid received the round in the temple stunning him before he was gutted by the tentacles and dragged to close range of Damon. The Terran-Zerg hybrid then did an unusual thing and threw up on the Protoss-Zerg hybrid. Due to a side effect of the infestation, Damon's bile was incredibly caustic and the hybrids entire upper torso quickly melted until it was beyond any sort of recognizable shape.

Looking around Kerrigan noticed the power generators in this massive room, explaining the ridiculous size, and the hybrids presence. Noticing a large fuel reservoir Kerrigan pulled a small explosive charge from her belt and planted it where she knew, from her time as a ghost, it would case an explosion visible from orbit.

30 minutes to detonation

They ran madly Kerrigan lagging behind as she could only run as fast as a Terran. The two Zerglings and Damon lead the way, stopping when necessary only long enough for Kerrigan to catch her breath and then took off again. They needed to be as far away as possible and they were able to quickly reach the outside where they found a waiting vulture bike. Kerrigan quickly started it as the other three cleared the way.

10 minutes to detonation

Damon was able to keep up by leaping through the jungle trees surrounding the base and the Zerglings were naturally as fast, a small mutation that had proved its worth Damon thought.

The entire base went nuclear, destroying a large section of the jungle in the process.

They immediately took cover to avoid falling debris. T'zu, swiftly followed by Azura quickly burrowed underground at Damon's instructions and were saved a lot of it, Kerrigan used her psionics to bend a nearby tree over and Damon used his claws to quickly get a small hollow ready for her under its roots, leading Damon to think, natures bunker, before he himself quickly burrowed.

Damon and Kerrigan, not being very far underground were the most affected by the shockwave and the debris. The pressure wave from the explosion flinging the Vulture into a nearby tree (destroying the bike) and tearing the top half of Kerrigan's tree off and away from her little bunker and a few of the larger yet still fist-sized rocks were able to pepper both her and Damon who's status as underground was still shallow.

Both had large, angry bruises by the time that they crawled out of their respective hidey holes, although with all the plating and incredible regenerative abilities it was definitely hard to tell on Damon. Thankfully T'zu and Azura were both far enough underground that they had managed to avoid any sort of damage from the falling debris.

A little stim later and Kerrigan was over the worst of it. Damon piggybacked her to her small fighter-craft before packing Azura in and saying his farewells (he would work the cramps that Kerrigan had caused in his tentacles later) and called the leviathan to his location. The Zerg replied quickly and soon the swarm had its most elite warrior and leader plus his puzzling companion at the helm to direct them once more.

Damon looked to the stars and thought that he might take a quick detour to Mar Sara and see how Raynor and his rangers were doing. Mengsk had recently been overthrown and his son Valerian had taken his place and locked Mengsk up for a VERY long time for his crimes. Raynor had declined to become his military advisor, saying that he just wanted to go home after all that he had been through.

Raynor was sitting in his favourite bar enjoying another shot of whiskey; he was working as a sheriff again. It was a little more domestic than he was used to and he urged to go on another crazy bug hunt, but he had promised himself, among others, that he would stay put and help the colony re-establish themselves.

They had fought tooth and nail one final time after they had landed, the recent Protoss purging clearing the way for the raiders to pull one final stunt and clear the planet of all Zerg infestation.

He stepped outside to find a small group of kids waiting for him a few streets down. As usual they asked for another of his stories regarding his adventures, and Raynor obliged them it was about midday and he wasn't too drunk yet anyways.

Raynor had just finished one of the less painful memories and one that was mostly fiction wrapped around a grain of truth when he heard a voice in his head

"We meet again" the unknown psychic said dramatically

Raynor flinched and asked "who is this" though he had an idea already

"Well you're half right" the voice said seeing his line of thought.

Raynor then almost scared the kids when he suddenly said aloud "well then Damon, why don't you come out". He had flinched when he had first heard Damon's voice and then had stood dead still.

"Raynor? Are you okay?" one of them asked timidly

"Yeah, an old buddy of mine just called me. He was talking to me in my head" he assured them before ushering them into an alley to try and stop whatever Damon was going to pull from hurting them, he was still clumsy and reckless, that much he could tell.

"In your head?" one of them asked like he was crazy

"Yeah, now I need you to stay here. He's coming here and He might look scary at first but he's really harmless"

"Why would he look scary?" said one of the braver kids

"Because the last time I saw him he left to lead the Zerg" Raynor said, thinking its better safe than sorry and he didn't want to scare the kids and there wasn't a way to break the news to them softly

"INCOMING!" Damon shouted into their minds (Raynor AND the kids) before a Zerg meteor landed in the street behind them.

When Damon stepped out of the rubble of the biological meteor though Raynor almost jumped out of his skin. He looked like a badly mutated, overgrown Zergling standing on its hind feet but thankfully T'zu at his side still looked the same, his carapace being slightly darker black and shinier than Raynor remembered but that was it.

The kids screamed in sheer terror

"Holy crap Damon!" Raynor almost shouted in surprise and barely restrained the urge to shoot him

"I know I look horrendous."

"Not only that, you're scaring the kids" Raynor said indicating with his free hand (when did he un-holster his pistol?) towards the kids

"I know that. I'm guessing the overly dramatic entrance didn't help?" he asked rhetorically

"I told them you were with the Zerg, but this is something else" Raynor said angrily

"If you calm down maybe we could salvage the situation some" Damon said before turning to the kids and saying "you can come out now, I don't bite" he called out to them but the just huddled together in fear.

Raynor turned to them and reached out a hand, repeating the same message that he was harmless and actually felt bad that they were scared of him.

The kids surprised Damon with how much trust that they put in Raynor, or was it the gun at his side, when they moved out of the alleyway, but they never moved more than a few feet from Raynor and avoided him like the plague until T'zu finally dragged his head from the wreckage of the now dissolving meteor and seeing Raynor, pounced him and gave Raynor a healthy dose of licking.

The kids were stunned but eventually seeing Raynor struggling to bat away the super friendly Zergling that was attacking his face with its tongue, the kids laughed along with Raynor, despite their fear they had never seen a funnier sight, even if Tzu's charge had scared the living daylights out of them.

Almost immediately they warmed to T'zu and when Damon finally managed to separate the few (T'zu kept slipping out of Damon's arms and returning for another assault) they came to appreciate him some as well, seeing as he was the only one who could pull the creature who was easily Raynors weight and as tall as the children at the shoulder, off of the struggling Sheriff.

T'zu was a favourite when the kids found that, with some practice; they could ride him about as well, using the clawed appendages on his back as handholds. Damon laughed and had struggles to see how many kids it took to weigh down on of the Spine-crawler-esque tentacles on his back. The answer was more than were there/could fit comfortably on the tentacle.

"So what are you doing here? I'm sure it wasn't just to play with kids" Raynor said

"Just a gut feelin' like there was something I needed to do here. Also I thought that if you would allow, it that I be allowed to deposit a small defence force here. As a sign of goodwill from the new face of the swarm" Damon replied

"Well kid I –"Raynor started but was cut short by a very angry looking hybrid turning the corner towards them.

"Well %$#" Damon said recognizing the hybrid as the one from his last mission, sending the kids fleeing in terror as he bellowed a feral sounding challenge at the hybrid.

Raynor raised his pistol and hailed the nearby Raiders. He was going to need their help with this one

**Author's notes**

**So what do you think? I'm sorry about the wait but I was busy all weekend with Mothers Day and all.**

**Kane: once again get yourself a bloody account already, you must be one of my most dedicated reviewers and I am kicking myself because I cant PM you. As for new Zerg I'm still undecided. As for command of the swarm, let's just say he was relaying it through Isis, but is getting better behind the scenes and has been practicing with 'Piloting' different Zerg.**

**Also feel free to see if you can use the descriptions in the story to sketch Damon. It would mean a lot.**

**Thanks for reading R&R and ENJOY!**


	9. 9 the Cycle repeats

**I do not own StarCraft 2 or any movie/game I may reference in this fic. The only things I own in this entire story are the OC's (Damon, T'zu, Azura, Scar etc.) and the effects that they have on the original Canon. Everything else is property of its original creators, unless stated otherwise by said creators.**

Damon leapt off of the building, narrowly dodging the lightning bolt that streaked through the air where he had just been. The Hybrid was a lot harder to close distances with it now being mobile and FAST, due to it not having to regenerate from previous damage.

T'zu had to stay out of the fight, there was no way he was going to get close without major damage being inflicted upon him, so he was assigned by Damon to get the kids to safety. He didn't have much problem and dragged the ones who wouldn't get the hint.

Raynor had taken precautions to try and make sure that the third time was indeed the charm when it came to settling Mar Sara, and used the extendable cover that he had installed in the sidewalks and roads to stay out of harm's way whilst he fired what he could at the hybrid, who simply stopped the shots dead long before they hit him with a casual flick before hurling another lightning bolt in retaliation.

Damon had been jumping around for a while now and when he hadn't been able to catch himself he had used his tentacles to nail himself to the surface whilst he used every last part of his brain to deflect the incoming lightning. This last time however he had slipped and the tentacles had missed, and the Hybrid was closing in fast.

The Hybrid stood triumphant over Damon his hand crackling with psionic energies, barely restrained lightning, and was about to kill Damon then gloat, before he received what a layman would have said was a laser, but to anyone who knew their guns, what was properly called a rail-gun to its chest where its heart would have been.

The Diamondback didn't last long after that, having its pilot and turret both exploding seconds after that but the seconds of distraction was all they needed.

Spectres who had been quietly distributing themselves across the rooftops suddenly opened up with a barrage of psionically enhanced bullets, each one actually wounding the Hybrid, Damon psionically threw the hybrid away as it just stood there in shock at the sudden pain and wounds it had just sustained. No less than three siege tanks then zeroed in and had their deadly 120mm ordinance hit home on the hybrid, wounding it further.

Finally the broken body of the hybrid was skewered once more by Damon's tentacles and, in a sudden display of psionically fuelled rage, Damon tore its limbs from its body, and then blasted its torso apart by using a small psionic storm to vaporise almost all of its bodily fluids.

Damon was now covered in a fresh coat of thick blue blood, and was bleeding some of his own purple blood. He looked a gory and scary sight and just stood there, breathing heavily and shaking uncontrollably until he heard the sound of a dozen guns arming.

Raynor quickly calmed the green-clad Marines who all bore the Raiders logo on their armour, who were just as disbelieving that the creature in front of them was in fact Damon. However eventually they all lowered their guns and just stared in wonder, Damon just collapsed almost from the sheer exhaustion that the fight had caused fighting like that psionically whilst jumping weaving and dodging would take a toll on anyone, especially given Damon's increased metabolism. He had been running mostly on adrenaline.

Damon faded in and out of consciousness and remembered T'zu at his side for most of it, followed by several shots of adrenaline being poured down his throat in an effort to try and keep him awake.

Damon woke up properly inside a nearby medivac feeling tired and sore, but mostly fine. T'zu, noticing Damon's awakening, quickly gave him a licking to remember.

He got up from the bed he was laying on and looked out from the Medivac. He saw the rubble and SCV's clearing up the remains of the Hybrid. It couldn't be more than three hours since he had torn the Hybrid to shreds. Raynor was there next to the bed looking after the kids until their parents could collect them.

"You had us worried there" Raynor said to him.

"At least I'm awake now" Damon replied, still tired mentally and physically.

A hive queen poked her head around the corner before speaking in the hissing tone common to her type.

"Are you okay, My Lord?" she asked

"I'm just tired now" Damon said, noticing the kids flinching whenever the queen spoke.

"So long as you are able to lead us" she replied

"Can I trust you to make sure that the humans aren't going to get hurt?" Damon asked

"Yes, my lord" the queen replied.

"I have a small peaceful mission for you then" Damon said

"Whatever you wish" the queen replied, aware that she was treading unfamiliar ground should the word peaceful arise in her orders

"With the hybrids becoming bold like that, the swarm may need to call upon them as allies to prevent utter annihilation. I need you to establish a small hive outside the town and try and cooperate with the humans and help them out. To that end I'm putting you under Raynor's command as well as mine." Damon said

"Now hold on a second-" Raynor started

"It took the raiders a quarter hour to saddle up in any sort of force to destroy that hybrid" Damon interrupted "they will cost you many lives should you try and face them on your own, I'm trying to share the losses between you and me. Zerglings are a lot more easily replaced than a marine"

Raynor and the queen looked like they had been slapped, then they both realised what Damon was trying to achieve and agreed to follow the plan. Damon knew that this was not likely to end well but was willing to take a gamble on it. The queen left with Raynor to try and find a suitable location for the new hive.

This left Damon and T'zu with the kids who seemed to relax somewhat now that the queen was gone, but were still on edge around him having seen the sheer brutality that he had used to defeat the Hybrid again. The tension in the air was stressing to say the least until T'zu; feeling ignored made his presence known with a small bark, which made everyone jump. There was a round of laughter as they all took turns to give him a small pat.

"Do any of you have a place I could stay? I have a feeling that I may be here a while" Damon asked the kids.

Most of them said that their parents wouldn't allow it, but promised that they would ask when their parents did come.

Tamara drove down the lane, going slowly to avoid hitting the road crews working to repair the street which looked like a bomb had hit the place. As she approached the place she asked a nearby Marine where James might be. He pointed her in the direction of a nearby medivac and assured her that he was alright.

As she approached what she saw boggled the mind. There was James on a Zergling's back holding on for dear life as it tried to buck him off several other kids cheering him on. She gasped as James fell off but didn't hit the pavement and instead just floated there and swivelled until he landed gently on his feet. She then saw that there was some sort of huge Zerg with its hand extended towards James and a smile on its deceptively human face.

Damon looked up at the human and guessed it was one of the kid's parents. She had a silent scream plastered on her face. Damon knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Hi mom!" James called out and ran to her snapping her out of her stupor.

His mom wanted desperately to get away from Damon and was able to summon up enough composure to 'politely' decline his request for a place to stay.

Damon just sighed and sat down on the boarding ramp of the medivac again. As other Parents arrived shortly after and Damon got a similar response, he started to fell disheartened that he would have sleep underground, which was less than ideal for several reasons. He tried not to sleep with the Zerg if he could help it, the multitude of minds causing him headaches. Izsha told him that it would pass but whilst it was still there he wasn't going to do that to himself in the mornings.

Eventually one by one the kids left with their parents, until it was just him and a small pale girl. He guessed that she was an albino and wondered why no one had picked her up.

"Where are your parents?" he asked her immediately regretting it as he sensed that he had touched on a sore spot.

"Dead" was all she managed to say

"I'm sorry to hear that, I can take you home if you want" Damon said sympathizing with her

"Don't be, you didn't kill them" she said "and I haven't had a home since I ran away"

"You ran away?" Damon said surprised, she was so young, a cursory glance at her mind revealing that she was 10

"The bullies at the orphanage made me" she said starting to cry

"There, there calm down" he said sympathetically, technically he had it rougher but he had been older "I can help"

"Really?" she asked between sobs

"Yeah, you saw me take on that hybrid, I think I can keep you safe" Damon said

"Okay" she said calming down somewhat.

"If you can grab onto these you can ride me as well" he said stretching the spine crawlers embedded into his back

Her face brightened as she climbed aboard, T'zu followed close behind.

To a casual observer they would have noticed two black and dull orange streaks racing across the roof tops and the streets until they arrived in front of an orphanage.

The orphanage looked like a repurposed Supply depot, and the kid, who was called Tayla, looked like she didn't like this place, but they both needed somewhere to sleep, so they approached the orphanage.

As they neared, Damon lurking behind Tayla, the one who was obviously the bully that Tayla had been talking about

"Well hello there, Tayla, I wasn't expecting you to show up again." The beast of a girl said. She was roughly 3 times as large as Tayla and had a pair of cronies to boot.

Damon could only laugh at the Cheese just oozing from every orifice in the situation.

"Hey what are you-" was all she got out before the Alien nature of Tayla's companion became apparent.

"Oh nothing just how cheesy those lines are" Damon laughed looking for all the world a monster cackling before it ate the terrified children.

"I told her that as well" Tayla said inciting the rage of the bully

The bully flung a punch at Tayla who was amazed to see that it had stopped in midair, that both the cronies had been picked up and pinned against a nearby wall by the back tentacles, and that the bully was now facing a rather annoyed looking Zerg.

"because I'm still part Terran I'm not going to kill you, but that doesn't stop me from leaving marks" Damon said before using his claws to leave three bloody gouges in her arm, eliciting a piercing scream from the girl

"Consider this you one and only warning" Damon finished and winced at how cliché the lines were and turned to Tayla saying "and don't lecture me on hypocrisy, I know that was cliché"

Damon released the Cronies and the bully before he caused all three of them to experience some nasty hallucinations (brain chemistry F.T.W) which left them huddled in the corner.

The headmistress was a brutal lady but after the severe shock of having an infested Terran like Damon show up with a Zergling in tow, and not have the Raiders come when she called, she let them have a spare room to themselves. It was a little harder to convince her to allow Tayla back but Damon was not an entity to argue against.

The orphanage was secluded enough from other Terrans and contained no more than twenty kids and all of about five staff including the janitor, meaning that Damon had no problems with a psychic headache in the morning. Tayla had been curious and had tried some of the creep that Damon had brought with him; needless to say that with an un-infested Terran digestive system that it didn't stay down to well.

Tayla was still purging her stomach a quarter hour later, when Damon was contacted by the queen with an update about the hive. It was doing well, having seeded an area with minerals and they were reaping the benefits now and would be ready to start helping the Terrans tomorrow.

Damon sent his approval and was dragged from his trance by a mild psychic emanation coming from Tayla. Realising the implications he waited for her to finish then posed the question

"Would you like to come with me?" Damon asked

Tayla didn't give a second thought to it when she just about jumped into his arms and wouldn't let go. He officially adopted her giving mostly semi-accurate details (mostly where age was concerned. He may have only been 15 in human years but with the hive mind of the Zerg and their shorter life spans (if they actually aged past maturity); he was practically an old fart for his species.) Thankfully there wasn't much in the way of identification needed, these were post-war kids and the Headmistress was as keen as ever to get rid of these two

There were a few bumps in the road but once again, but due to strange occurrences in the night (floating children) and his status as leader of a portion of the Zerg Swarm, they were straightened out quickly.

Damon asked Raynor to gather that cohort of kids from yesterday and to meet him at the new hive via psychic message. When they arrived there he told them that he would give them each a gift for their niceness yesterday and that it would require them to be very brave. They were excited to find out what this gift was and they didn't hesitate to follow him to the new spawning pool.

There he had the Queen waiting and ready with six eggs. To each of them Damon then said

"I will need all of you to be brave now, if I were to order these eggs to hatch they would be six very ordinary Zerg, But the Queen has made these ones special, if I can take your hands now I will demonstrate"

He pricked the first kid's finger using his claws; the kid had short spiky blonde hair and more importantly had been practically fearless yesterday. He then directed the kid to rubbing the crimson fluids on the egg which then started glowing a vibrant canary yellow instead of the usual green.

Upon ordering the Egg to hatch, Damon observed as the bright yellow Zergling crawled out of its egg took one look at the kid and immediately recognized him as its parent. Damon then said he could go now. The kid left carrying the small Zergling in his arms like a long trusted family pet

The kids were stuck there in amazement as they all had their turns, the Zerglings emerging in the hair colours of their new owners. All promised to take good care of their new family members before running off

"Is that really wise?" Raynor asked

"maybe, maybe not, I do know that this may go far in helping these people recover from what the swarm has done to them, these Zerg showing that we can be friendly" Damon replied.

"You've been talking to Zeratul haven't you" Raynor asked

"No not really, I've just had a long hard think on the matter" Damon said

"And what about her?" Raynor said indicating Tayla who was wrapped around one of Damon's legs

"I'm working for the benefit of all, and she was stuck in a bad place with no family to take care of her, and I was thinking I would let her become a part of mine" Damon replied

"You pity her don't you?" Raynor said

"The Swarm took away my family when I was twelve. I managed to forgive them though" Damon said

"So long as this doesn't bite us in the ass" Raynor warned

"I know" Damon said as an overlord flew in from the leviathan

Turning to Tayla Damon simply said "wanna go see your new home?"

**Author's notes**

**I might end up rewriting the second half of this chapter. And I know that I got a lot of details about adopting an orphan grossly off the mark. However if you're a Zerg-human Hybrid adopting a problematic Albino girl from a shit-hole of an Orphanage with an intimidated headmistress does it really matter?**

**I got Damon to adopt one of them after I realised how fun it was to write the interaction with the kids. That and my major source of inspiration for this fic started out similar to Tayla's story. I have taken my creative license on that idea though**

**Kane: I made Kerrigan angry because I thought that there was probably going to be a shit-storm about me getting what was almost a complete stranger saying to what was essentially a small kid "I made you" again thank you for all your reviews and guidance.**

**Any one that can draw: I would like to place a request for someone to draw Damon. I'm finding it harder and harder to place how he actually looks in my mind straight. He needs to not look too human but still not completely Zerg; a Mr. Hyde to the rather human Dr. Jekyll if you will.**

**Once again R&R, enjoy the story and feel free to ask question, I will do my best to answer them.**


	10. 10 a twist in fate

**I do not own SC2 or any movies/games referenced in this fic. They belong to the owners of the copyrights. I do own Damon, T'zu, Tayla and any other OC's.**

Tayla was focusing hard on the Zergling in front of her, telling it to sit down with her mind.

Damon experienced a huge nostalgia trip when the Zergling at first obeyed then suddenly morphed into a Baneling. Tayla hadn't taken long to settle in and was determined to have a firm grasp on everything that he had to learn in record time. So far she was ahead of him, but then again she didn't have the same fear factor working against her that Damon did.

They were on the Leviathan still and would need to wait for some time before they finally got to Char. Damon had decided to start training Tayla, commanding the swarm not to eat her would come in handy for when the leviathan finally got to Char.

Damon thought long and hard about why Terrans had problems with commanding Zerg and developed two theories. The second one would require him to infest Tayla to truly test and that was something he didn't want to force upon Tayla. However he could safely test the first one

"I have an idea" Damon said to her

"I'm listening" was Tayla's reply,

"I'm going to command you like I would a Zerg and I want you to remember the feeling of the command"

"Why would you do that?"

"A theory I need to test" Damon assured her

Damon commanded Tayla to sit down and whilst she initially resisted she gave in and ended up sitting down on the floor before Damon released her

Tayla blinked and looked like she had been shocked. To her the command had been a sudden urge to sit down. It was as if she weren't in control of her body and it was one of the more frightening things she had ever experienced.

"Do you remember the command?" Damon asked whilst also mentally kicking himself for accidentally overdoing the command

Tayla just nodded still recovering from having her free will suppressed.

"I want you to try and replicate that feeling and project that to the next Zergling" Damon explained to Tayla

The Baneling left, rolling away. He would most likely be forced out the Mutalisk hives in the general direction of a dominion base. Another Zergling entered the room at Damon's command. Tayla almost succeeded before accidentally commanding herself to sit. This frustrated her to new heights of annoyed

"Just practice for now. I have a backup plan, if you can't work it, but I can guarantee that it is … unpleasant" Damon said "also when you do manage to command Zerg I have a small surprise in mind for you"

"It's not a Zergling is it?" she asked

"That's for you to decide" Damon replied, leaving Tayla in puzzlement

Damon left the Training room and walked to hi quarters, sensing his new protégé now working hard to find out what he had in store for her as he left. He hoped that he would not have the same trouble that Kerrigan did when she had 'adopted' him when he did get to Char.

Of the few things that Damon had from before his infestation, his Guitar was among the last that he could still use. Playing it was a sort of release for him, and he quickly lost himself to the music. He played a soft melodical tune and could feel the stress and pain of the last few days melt away.

He lost track of time to the melody of the music and when he ended he found T'zu with a blissful look on his face. Probing the hive mind of the swarm he found that he had inadvertently caused all the Zerg in the Leviathan to stop what they were doing as he had exuded bliss and harmony through them.

He quickly gave them the psychic equivalent of a splash of cold water though and set them working once more to tend to and guard the Leviathan.

Damon quickly sifted through his memories and found that there had always been strange occurrences when he had played his guitar. Normally though he had just found nearby items and people floating, projection of feelings like that was a new occurrence.

"_**Mom, that was Beautiful" **_T'zu said to him.

"Thanks" Damon replied automatically before tossing him a treat that he had picked up on his latest supply run. He shuddered when he remembered what Abathur had made for him to eat.

"_**We are above Char once more Damon"**_ Izsha said to him psychically interrupting the moment. She was the only one of the Zerg who didn't refer to him as 'My Lord'

"_**Then prepare an overlord, I plan to rest for some time planet-side" **_Damon replied.

He gathered up a frustrated Tayla and made for the Hive cluster which had grown in Damon's absence. As the descended Damon chattered idly to Tayla

"You seem to be settling in okay, but you don't seem as scared as you should be" he mentioned to her

She looked up and thought for a moment before saying "I am scared, but then I see you among these monsters perfectly safe and then I don't feel scared"

"I must look the scariest out of all these creatures I surround myself with, surely you don't find me a comforting sight" Damon said

"Why? You look like a normal person to me." Tayla replied confused now

Damon was suddenly scared that the girl in front of him was saying that he looked normal and then secretly looked into her mind. He looked for what he looked like through her eyes and saw many frightening things about the girl.

Tayla saw many things differently before Damon realised that despite there being no fog in Tayla's crimson eyes that she was blind. Tayla somehow saw though, and this left Damon puzzled until he felt her squint at him and the gentle and subtle nudges and pokes at his psyche before he realised what was happening. She was psychically seeing. Examining her mind Damon saw that she could make out outlines of the rooms but she saw no colour on the walls. She did see people and other creatures differently than what they appeared to be as well and when her eyes passed over him she saw a regular 16 year old boy with scraggly stubble and wearing a white hoodie and black jeans and a cape.

Damon just sat there stunned. Was the boy she saw what he would have looked like? Was it who he was? It had been almost a year since he had seen himself as he had been uninfested.

"Tayla, you may just be the most psychically gifted person I have ever met." Damon said as he felt almost scared. Of what he didn't know but he knew that he was scared of something

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked more confused than ever

"It's easier if I ask you to look through my eyes for a few seconds" Damon replied

Trusting Damon, she obeyed and he felt her gasp as her senses beheld colour vision for what could possibly have been the first time. He looked around the room before thinking to her "what you will see next may scare you"

He waited for her to respond to him before he looked down and beheld his body for what it was. He paid special attention to the things which made him clearly non-human. He felt Tayla's mind become grasped by sudden fear as she withdrew from his mind and shrunk away from him physically.

"I'm still the same person" Damon tried to reassure her but she just crawled closer into her corner whimpering in fear she wouldn't listen to reason and especially not from him.

Damon was lost for what to do. Getting too close would likely result in a violent response and frighten her.

T'zu however not being the direct object of her fear approached her and licked her cheek a few time before she started petting. The moment was brief though as she realised what T'zu was and quickly withdrew her hand.

Damon tried to calm her but all he got was a big "GO AWAY!" from Tayla and was forced to retreat to a different carry sac in the overlord for the rest of the trip down to Char the fear emanating from Tayla in thick waves even as far as worrying the overlord carrying them.

The overlord then in a moment of true sentience contacted Tayla psychically. It may have had something to do with his slow heavy and deep resonating psychic voice, but he was able to calm Tayla mostly before they set down on the planet.

Damon quickly got out of the overlord and hid himself from Tayla, he knew she would need some time to process all that those few brief seconds in the overlord had shown to her and it was best if it were time left alone.

Damon was able to make sure she was well looked after though, setting a guard of hunter-killers in place quickly and a Hive queen to keep an eye on her before turning his attention to other matters of great import.

He went to the Spawning pools where he knew the source of the problem was, hard at a work perfecting his endless experiments.

"Hello Abathur" Damon said

"Of all the life forms in the Galaxy," the hunchbacked creature said turning to face him "the one I least expected to see again was you"

**Author's Notes.**

**I try and leave these on cliff-hangers as often as possible on purpose, just to make sure you guys come back tomorrow to see what I have schemed next.**

**And so we see the return of Abathur and see a pair of interesting abilities show themselves in this chapter. What will the seemingly random hand of fate place in my skull tomorrow?**

**Kane: I intend for Damon to develop a sort of Father-Daughter relationship (he DID adopt her) and as I wrote the scene with the bullies I could almost taste the Cheese oozing off of every orifice and I thought I would put a anti-stereotype, non-Mary sue type theme on it. I'm thinking that since we have had a blaster (Kerrigan) and Ninja (Damon) Terran-Zerg hybrids I'm thinking of some sort of Ranged expert for Tayla. There may be one that ends up a total melee juggernaut and/or a status monkey as well but I don't plan for anyone else to join the swarm any time soon.**

**To anyone that can Draw: I would love it if you would draw Damon for me and also send ideas to me for new Zerg units and/or ideas for Terran-Zerg hybrids or even (heaven forbid) Human-Protoss hybrids.**

**R&R and Enjoy. See you guys tomorrow.**


	11. 11 a new prophecy

**I do not own StarCraft or any games/movies referenced in this Fic. I own any OC's that appear in it though.**

Damon retreated to his rooms once more. He barely noticed when Tayla and T'zu followed him in trying to calm him down. There had been yet another, short-sighted Hive queen who thought that he was showing weakness or had perceived some slight against her. They were becoming more and more common and his constant headaches weren't helping with maintaining any sort of calm demeanour.

What was worse was that there was a psionic presence flitting around the base that was not Tayla using her psionic sight to manage the base. It was too fast to pin down and track its source and it was getting on his nerves despite the fact that he felt no ill will from it.

He sat down at the biological desk he had grown in his room and put his head in his hands. The brood mothers should be keeping their charges in line better than this. He needed a break.

The presence that had been all over the base now intensified and then moved to his room like lightning. Shadows then gathered from all over the room, leaving everything with a curious flat appearance, and coalesced into one solid blob without a set form. Two creatures then moved from the void and into Damon's room. The first was Zeratul, who Damon hadn't seen since his second induction into the swarm, the second was Kerrigan. Both parties eyed each other suspiciously for a moment before T'zu broke the awkward silence by giving a delighted squeal when he recognized Azura next to Kerrigan's legs. This set the whole room laughing, and then catching up

"Zeratul, I haven't seen you in ages! Where have you been?" Damon asked

"_**I have been consulting with the beings that forged the original prophecies that would have determined your fates had it not been for Damon. They have been able to see glimpses of the future once more"**_ he said gravely

"What did they see?" Tayla asked, Damon had told her of stories of Zeratul when he hadn't been pushing her to be able to command the swarm.

"_**They saw among other things an army of hybrids on a long lost planet. They saw five creatures stand against them and together repelled the swarms of Abominations, one gives his life for the survival of the other four and before he dies, he strikes down what can only be described as their leader."**_ Zeratul replied

This gave Damon a surprise, one hybrid was hard to take down but an army? "What were these creatures?" he asked.

Zeratul's face darkened and he held an Ihan crystal which glowed a dim green "see for yourself" offering the crystal first to Tayla for her to see, then when, with a gasp, she was finally released from the crystals grip Zeratul held it for Damon to see what it held within

Damon was instantly taken to a large grassy plain with creep in patches trying to slowly consume the grass here and there. Five figures stood on a small hill and faced a sea of Aqua blue on all sides. Damon's mind boggled at the sheer numbers. The hybrids quickly converged on the figures whose odd forms were all he could see behind the setting sun. The hybrids were faster than any he had seen but the figures were faster still. They operated as one single entity and the sheer displays of psionic power and prowess amazed Damon. These were titans of the battle field and he was blessed enough to see them where their every move was art.

His field of view dimmed then changed positions as he saw exactly what these creatures were. They were Zerg-Terran hybrids like himself, in fact he actually saw an older more battle scarred version of himself, moving with blinding speed and each combo destroying yet another hybrid who burned with a bright white light shortly afterwards.

Looking to the others he recognized, of all things, The Queen of Blades. Her every move destroyed and then incinerated many Hybrids, he saw what he recognized as Tayla, standing back and launching projectiles at the hybrids, never missing her mark.

There were two others that he did not recognize and made a mental note of what they looked like. The fourth person was an absolute wall, many of the hybrids attacks just bouncing off of his defences, psionic and physical alike, and his punches left craters in the anatomy of any hybrids within reach.

The fifth and final Zerg-Terran waited for the hybrids to close with him before they buckled under an impressive psionic attack, were sprayed with acids, and then were was finished off with one of the scythes attached to his back.

Again Damon's sight faded and he saw that the Hybrids were now few in number and the Fives attention was on a massive hybrid whose body emitted a foul black smoke that withered whatever grass it touched.

The fight was a sight to behold but the five were clearly outmatched and one by one they were incapacitated until only Damon still stood. Damon dodged every attack the hybrid levelled at Damon until Damon jumped up and punched through its chest and tore its hearts out.

The three beating appendages then burned as a white energy consumed them then jumped to the creature that then violently exploded in a pulse of dark energies.

Damon's sight dimmed once more and when it was returned to him he was back in his room, his tail being the only thing that had stopped him from falling over. He couldn't speak for several minutes and he still felt like he wasn't totally in his body.

Eventually though he did ask "and all that will happen?" shaking visibly from the experience.

"_**It is a memory of a vision of the future"**_ Zeratul confirmed _**"they are never completely accurate but this chain of events will come to pass the owners of these memories have also said that this army of Hybrids, if left unmolested will consume the galaxy, plunging it into eternal darkness" **_

"That would explain why Kerrigan is here" Tayla said. She had heard even more stories from Damon about Kerrigan

"It's hard to argue against yourself and someone else at the same time that becoming infested again is a bad thing. The Queen of Blades has practically been begging me to return again since Zeratul first showed me this" Kerrigan said "Jim was a little harder to convince but eventually he said yes"

"Does anyone have any idea who the other two are?" Tayla asked

No one knew, but all could remember their faces.

"Well if they are going to help us then were going to have to look for them aren't we?" Damon said, prophecy or no he did also need help with managing the swarm at the very least

"_**I must return and tell the council of this prophecy"**_ Zeratul said before passing into the void and quickly moving out of the hive cluster.

Tayla introduced Kerrigan to her companion as well. Who was a miniature hydralisk, who was slightly larger than the other pygmies who had quickly proven to be effective ambush predators.

Abathur had been hard at work producing and improving upon Zerg strains, including a lizard-like creature twice the size of a Terran which somehow managed to project bio-plasma from its mouth like a flame thrower. Damon still didn't understand Abathur explanation as to how they did that and had given up trying. They were used to clear out resilient bunkers and other fortified areas with tight spaces.

Also new amongst the Zerg were Reapers, which were beetle like Zerg Strains with four scythe-like blade-arms, and had proven to be effective shock troopers, if a little wild but Abathur was working in enough intelligence to more effectively allow them to be commanded. Currently the few that were around the hive were used as a main body for bodyguard cohorts along with the old Hunter-Killers.

Abathur's 'face' lit up at seeing Damon approaching him at the spawning pools, he regarded him as one of his most successful experiments ever. He was given a small sample of blood and told to use the DNA to create a parasite that would infest the source of the blood.

Abathur got to work weaving the strands of DNA oblivious to everything else. He was given a task and he made it his purpose.

Meanwhile an overlord made its way as fast as it could to Shakuras, to see what assistance that they could wring out of the Protoss.

"_**WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!"**_ the executor demanded of the three who were just now stepping out of the overlord, almost unsurprised to find that they weren't welcome on Shakuras.

The infested Terran then spoke, clearly struggling through his misshapen mouth, _**"if you calm down I will explain our intentions here"**_

Artanis himself stopped the conversation dead and walked up to the Terran-Zerg hybrid and displaying an uncommon knowledge of Terran customs shook his hand.

"_**I welcome you to Shakuras Damon, and while we weren't expecting you, we will extend whatever hospitality we can towards you and those accompanying y-"**_ He said before looking at his two companions and saw the older female, whose crimes against the Protoss were too many to count.

"_**What is she doing here?" **_Artanis said with a barely restrained anger energy gathering at his hands

Damon coolly said "I am here because of a prophecy that Zeratul showed us. It involved her as a vital part of preventing armies of hybrids from consuming the Galaxy."

This didn't lower the Psi blades directed at them though

"And this is NOT the Queen of Blades, but instead the rouge Confederate ghost Sarah Kerrigan" Tayla added, causing some of the younger Protoss to flinch in surprise. They had not been expecting someone so young to speak up like that

Damon ran with this line of thought and said "she would have brought an entire Zerg swarm on Shakuras if she was still really the Queen of Blades, she knows of your great distrust and anger towards her."

Artanis took a few seconds to process this before finally agreeing to allow Kerrigan to stay on planet on the condition that she would be under a constant watch. Damon could tell that this decision was not going to be popular with the Protoss.

"_**And what do you hope to accomplish here"**_ Artanis asked Damon more directly

"I need two small favours from your people" Damon replied

**Author's notes**

**I am SO sorry for not being able to post this chapter for some time but I couldn't seem to get a good chapter going, and I finally got a copy of Resident Evil 5 in the mail on Thursday and for the past four days I was completely consumed with getting all the good guns etc.**

**That doesn't mean I haven't been checking in EVERY day to make sure that you haven't reviewed the story though and I must say I'm displeased with my grand total of 0 reviews for last chapter (which I might retconn a part out)**

**Anyways just R&R this chapter. Please.**

**Also if any of you who can draw are interested I would love it if you could create a picture of Damon, and what you think any sort of New Zerg units or Terran-Zerg hybrids should look like**


	12. 12 Pride and Prejudice

**I do not own SC2, Blizzard does. I do not own any Movie/games that I reference they belong to the owners of the copyrights. I own the OC's.**

Damon left the meditation chamber, feeling a rare inner peace. He had been learning to channel the energies of the Khala as burning with Nerazim energies like a Zerg or Dark Templar, or Khala energies like a High Templar or Zealot, alone did not seem to kill Hybrid's permanently though it did incapacitate them longer than . Since Zerg could naturally channel Void energies he had decided to find a way to control the psi energies of the Khala.

Initially the Protoss had been suspicious of him but time and again, Damon had shown that he harboured no ill will towards his half-half-brothers and sisters (he was half Zerg, and both races had been created by the Xel'naga) and whilst this notion disgusted the more puritanical Protoss, so long as he kept to himself he encountered no drawn psi-blades.

Kerrigan was basically under house arrest, but was allowed to roam freely every now and then. She had almost immediately expressed a desire to be gone from this place.

Tayla had more freedom and was respected by the Protoss warriors, and adored by some of the more motherly female Protoss. She didn't like the attention much but she took it well in stride; it was going to be hard to explain to them what had to happen to her so that she could save the galaxy.

Damon had almost had to take a crash course in recovering from a sliced neck when he asked Artanis for his aid in what he intended to do. Damon remembered most of what Stetmann had said about Kerrigan and how the Xel'naga Artefact had merely suppressed the Queen of Blades. Kerrigan was suffering a Zerg induced case of Split personality disorder.

Damon figured that if he reversed the changes the artefact had produced the Queen of Blades would once again become the dominant personality though. He was going to have to meld the two if he were to get anywhere near and infested Kerrigan once more. Hence why he was learning to channel Khala in an effort not only to incinerate the hybrids, but to also reverse the changes to Kerrigan and meld both of Kerrigan's identities.

Artanis had consulted with Zeratul for a day before finally agreeing to his plan. Damon would learn to Channel Khala and have the assistance of both Light and Dark Templars in hatching his plan. Artanis though was not happy with this turn of events.

Damon was in the apartment the Protoss had allowed him to stay in with Tayla and Kerrigan. It was a strange family, as it was one that had been forged by many twists and turns in Fate. Semi-pleasant aromas wafted from the kitchen, Kerrigan had been learning to cook, having nothing else to do, and had discovered a hidden talent in the week or so that they had spent here. Unfortunately she didn't always succeed in producing something edible. Tayla was busy learning to shape the strange materials that the Protoss built with no doubt.

A thankfully level-headed Dark Templar had been assigned to make sure Kerrigan did nothing to step out of line. He sat on the couch of the ornate apartment clearly half meditating, half keeping a watchful eye to make sure Kerrigan didn't start another fire

Clearly the artisans of the Protoss poured many hours into creating even the simplest of structures and as such it was a light and airy apartment with a strange organic look to it. It suited the three well, being used to purely organic structures.

Damon sat on the couch next to the Templar who broke his meditation.

"How has Kerrigan been?" Damon asked knowing the answer already

"_**Busying herself with small things, I truly am glad that my species does not possess a mouth though."**_ He said

Damon was a little surprised with the second remark "and why is that?" he asked curiously

"_**Because that excludes me from being her … as you would say it, 'Guinea Pig'**_" he said, giving the mental equivalent of a grin

As if on cue Azura dragged a surprisingly green looking, 'dumb' Zergling out of the kitchen, and to the bathroom where the sounds of a small stomach purging itself left all in earshot feeling sorry for the small creature; Apparently Zergling Chow hadn't been perfected yet

Tayla walked in the front door and was immediately pounced by Kriss, her companion mini-hydralisk. She squealed in delight and surprise in equal measures as she fell to the floor and both became a small ball of energy that not even the Templar would dare approach for fear of stray claws leaving bloody gouges in seemingly impossible locations.

When the two finally separated themselves from each other Tayla grabbed a small yellow crystal that she had dropped when she had entered and reattached small pieces that had broken off when she had dropped it.

"What's that you got there?" Damon asked

"A Protoss gave it to me and showed me how to do this" Tayla eagerly replied before placing the crystal in her palm and focusing, producing a brilliant blade of energy out the other end of the crystal, this one of a reddish hue.

This startled everyone in the room, as there were only two colours currently in existence, the blue Psi-blades, and the green Void-blades. No one knew what sort of energies Tayla was channelling to produce a red blade.

Tayla looked at the energy blade and immediately dropped her concentration, the blade vanished and she looked as shocked as the rest of them. The blade she had produced earlier had been green.

"_**What manner of sorcery is this!"**_ the Templar shouted

"It didn't do that before" Tayla said in her defence scared by angry Dark Templar.

Damon put his hand on the Templars shoulder, and asked Tayla to make the blade again

Tayla obliged and produced a very rough Void-blade. The Templar was unconvinced though and only after another five attempts, Tayla still scared out of her mind, and no more red blades did the Templar finally relent, though both parties knew that this would do the Zerg no favours on Shakuras.

The next day Tayla was summoned before the council and, after about a dozen or so attempts couldn't reproduce the red blade. When she finally left the council chambers there was a Templar following closely behind her.

Damon was running out of goodwill from the Protoss and he knew it. He still had a trump card to play but had so far hesitated, but under the current circumstances he really had no choice.

Damon entered the Council Chambers shortly after Tayla had left and walked to the podium for those appearing before the council.

"_**Why are you here?"**_ one of the Templars said distaste clearly evident in his voice.

"I am here because, despite the rockiness of late, I thought to thank you properly for your hospitality." He said, it was a pretence and everyone knew it

"And what could you possibly give us?" another Councillor said

"You all know about my ability to command the swarm I presume?" Damon said seeing that some of the wiser and more intelligent Protoss' eyes light up in realization

One of the Councillors who hadn't followed him said _**"we are aware of this ability of yours, what makes you think we would want a Zerg swarm?"**_

"You won't RECEIVE a brood, but rather be RID of one. I propose to remove the Zerg from your home world, and in return I would like to continue my work towards making sure Zeratul's prophecy becomes a reality" he said with a smile

Damon felt a dozen or so of the Protoss probe his mind, searching for deceit and finding none

"_**And what do you intend to do with these Zerg once you have rid Auir of them?"**_ one of the more farsighted Councillors asked

"Some go towards bolstering my own broods with fresh numbers, others become colonies to defend those we term our allies, and more still will simply cease to be, a mass product recall if you will"

The councillors quickly discussed this new turn of events quickly, telepathically considering their options. After five minutes (a long time for a telepathic discussion, as thoughts flowed faster and more freely than words but could sometimes become hard to decipher) and grudgingly accepted.

The news spread faster than the speed of gossip (which was considerably faster than light) throughout Shakuras, and many a Zealot gave him a small word of praise and Damon was sure that, if they could drink, there would have been many intoxicated Protoss tomorrow.

Damon got home and told Kerrigan he would be spending some time off-world on a goodwill mission for the Protoss. He gathered some necessities and made for the now waiting overlord who quickly brought him to the Leviathan that was waiting in orbit. Damon ordered another three from neighbouring Zerg colonies and told them to meet him at Auir, there would be a lot of extra cargo waiting for them when they arrived.

Damon looked forward to the encounter; he had never seen Auir and was looking forward to the experience

What Damon saw was a jewel, blue oceans surrounding green continents and he could see why the Protoss loved their Home, but Damon also saw that on the expanses of green there were large patches of a greyish-purple hue, and Damon saw the scope of the project that he had taken on. The Overmind really had thrown everything he could at establishing a foothold on Auir.

Damon turned his mind from the sights and joining his mind with the many Queens and both the Brood Mothers that were on-board the Leviathan and worked through the statistics and strategies.

They developed two plans, one: Command whatever Zerg to one location and remove them from Auir, then find those that remained and befriend those that were useful and dispose of those that weren't.

Plan B was, if plan A failed and, for whatever reason, the Zerg disobeyed, they would bring out their Army and command them in a planet-wide Extermination.

Plan B was less favourable as the Protoss had many stores of valuable technology on Auir and they weren't all that fond of coming home to find that the swarm had destroyed them accidentally.

Damon sat down in his chamber, now safely in his own head once more and meditated, working on developing a Xel'naga energy that they could use to revert Kerrigan.

As Damon prepared himself for a long Campaign, an ancient being filled with nothing but pure malice and anger looked from within the Void.

"This Delay will cost you, Mortal" it thought to no one in particular, being the only being near itself. He had suffered greatly when he had torn the Void to shreds and had barely managed to survive. "Soon my Army shall be ready, and your fate shall seal"

**Author's Notes**

**Sorry for the Delay, I'm just not back on the ball I dropped in favour of RE5 yet.**

**As for the story, DUM DUM DUMMMMMMM! So the Dark Voice has a personal Vendetta against Damon, understandably. Also between Chapter 11 and 10 there is a small time difference of about, a month or two. Damon was able to reconcile Tayla to his appearance in the two or three (you decide) months backstage.**

**Also Creep consumption DOES infest the creature consuming it, but slowly. The earliest known effect is being able to actually Stomach creep after a day or two and after a week they don't even feel nauseous. It would take a lifetime to become a full hybrid on just a diet of creep without the help of a hyper-evolutionary Chrysalis and/or one of Abathur's Parasites though. No-one asked about this but I thought that I might mention it**

**Kane: the Behemoth will appear in the next chapter, don't worry.**

**General TheDyingTitan : thanks for the ideas and review, don't forget that Abathur is endlessly experimenting with Zerg DNA, working to find useful improvements to existing Zerg Strains and create new ones.**

**Also a cookie goes to whoever rereads the last chapter and tells me where Reapers and the flamethrower Lizard things which I shall call Geckoes are references to and tells me in a review.**

**Anyways R&R it means a lot **


	13. 13 gone Rouge

**I do NOT own StarCraft 2 or any other movies/games I may reference in this fic. The owners of their respective copyrights could grind me in legal paste if they wanted to. I do own Original Content in the story though.**

Damon Trudged through the area mindful of the rescinding creep that threated to trip him up whenever he stepped off of it, and it was only through deft use of his tail as a balancing device that he was able remain standing sometimes.

He was getting close to the mind he had felt leading the Swarms on Auir. These Silver-Eyed Zerg seemed to have broken away from the swarm and developed intelligence and personalities of their own, and Damon was working to either recruit them or eradicate them. He had made a promise to the Protoss that he would soon have this world clean of Zerg.

Damon's guards, four Hunter-Killers and five Reapers followed him closely finding maintaining a footing on the uneven surfaces as hard as he was, the reapers were rather prone to being toppled over as well making progress even slower as they had to stop every now and then to help one up.

After just under an Hour, Damon spotted a small cave entrance, and was immediately greeted by a pair of Lurkers rising from being burrowed right next to him.

"What do we have here?" Damon said "I thought Lurkers had been phased out after the Overmind had died"

The two flinched at his statement. Their mouths hadn't been designed for speech and what came out hissed and sputtered badly, yet Damon got the gist of what they were saying nonetheless.

"We have been sent to greet you, great one, the Queen wishes to speak with you" they proclaimed in unison grey eyes shining in the Twilight.

"Does she mind if I bring my escort with me? I don't wish to offend" he said looking back at his Golden Eyed Bodyguards.

After a brief pause, the two Lurkers the said "Our Queen understands this, so long as they do not follow you to her chambers, she shall be fine in allowing them into her domain."

Damon then agreed to follow them to the Queen and followed the two Lurkers, using his telepathic gifts to home in on the two as he burrowed through the ground.

Damon was surprised to find what was basically a city made entirely of Zerg bio-matter, stretching for miles in every direction, filling the massive underground complex in which it resided completely. Here the Zerg appeared to be of a more sapient mutation. Zerglings, whilst still able to run on all fours, could walk in a bi-pedal stance and instead of the simple claws on their forefeet, they had little clawed hands. There was a similar set of mutations for most members of the swarm, Hydralisk with clawed thumbs, Ultralisks with sharpened crablike claws instead of the usual Kaiser blades.

Damon concluded that they must have absorbed Protoss DNA whilst they were down here, and that these mutations were the result of the DNA being incorporated into the spawning pools.

The Lurkers had left him behind and returned to the surface. Instead a small Zergling, tugging on his leg, directed him towards the main Chamber of the Queen giving him a small tour along the way.

She was just as curious about Damon and the Regular Zerg as he was about them, and much information was shared.

Damon was at the entrance to the queen's chamber and ordered his guards to wait outside but be ready to enter the chambers and protect him within a moment's notice.

Walking into the chamber, he saw that the queen seemed to be rooted into the wall, immobile and resembled Izsha in her mobility predicament. They exchanged a few pleasantries before they got down to business

"What could possibly bring you to us, Damon" she asked, cold eyes staring intently at him

Damon retained his composure and replied "I made a promise to some friends. They wanted this planet free of Zerg. I actually wasn't expecting to find you here."

"Why would they want this planet? We have been here as long as we can remember." The Queen said.

"This world, Auir as they call it, is their home-world. They were made to leave by the swarm a few years back, but have wanted it back desperately since" he said.

This was news to the Queen. She remembered little from before, but she remembered caring for the hive she commanded, and an ever present voice. It had mostly talked to others, but when it talked to her, it did with such force and charisma, she had obeyed eagerly.

Damon continued his little speech either ignoring or oblivious to the queen being lost in memories.

When the queen finally escaped her past she caught "I can help move you and your kin to another planet nearby here, but the final decision is up to you" from Damon before he went silent waiting patiently for an answer

The queen quickly read the memories of the optical parasites that she had studded the city with; she found a compelling argument, appealing to her on many levels. She thought hard, and carefully weighed her options before asking

"And who is this species that so wishes for this world"

Damon relaxed, caught slightly off guard, and showed her what he knew; he laboured over their "cleansing" techniques greatly but also gave several general images of the Protoss.

"Is it not possible for our two species to share this world?" the queen said at last

Damon had expected this, and knew that this would be hard to explain to the council.

"I shall consult with them and plead your case if you so wish, just don't expect a warm welcome, theirs is a deep seated hatred which the swarm has done nothing to mitigate until recently" he said

Damon then gathered his mental strength and, using the Zerg in nearby colonies, Leviathans, and full hive worlds, relayed a message to Shakuras, the final recipient being Kerrigan. In the message he told Kerrigan to get the council to meet him on Auir, and to tell them that the swarm had been removed from their home world.

Damon stayed with his own kind but made sure to have ambassadors from the Intelligent Zerg with him for when they did arrive. It was a full Auir day before they arrived and the discovery of the Overlord's old Behemoth meant that they had been able to stash most of the Swarm in orbit above Auir. When the Carrier arrived, five Council members each one representative of several different Protoss warriors, with High and Dark Templars, a Zealot, a Stalker and Artanis himself warped down to greet him.

"_**En Taro Tassadar Damon, Kerrigan Requested that we meet you here, what is it that cannot wait until your return."**_ Artanis asked him

Returned the greeting and intentionally cryptic, replied with two words "a request"

"_**What could you possibly need?"**_ Artanis said now very annoyed

"Not me; him." Damon said indicating the small silver-eyed Zergling hiding behind his legs

"_**Is that not one of yours?"**_ he asked impatiently

The councillor blinked in surprise when the Zergling found her voice and said "no, we aren't regular Zerg"

"_**It speaks?" **_the Zealot said in surprise

The Zergling ambassador then spoke up "yeah, and not just me either"

"there's a massive bio-city underneath our feet" Damon said in response to their confused looks "they are separate from the swarm, and have been since the demise of the Overmind; their queen has asked to stay here, and help repair what damage the Swarm has inflicted upon this"

All five recoiled in shock. To his psychic senses Damon could almost see a ripple of surprise and shock spreading through the Mothership and her carrier escort.

"_**How is this possible?"**_ the high Templar asked him.

"Intelligence of this magnitude was genetically restricted to the Overmind and his cerebrates before the second Great War, my guess is that a Protoss body contaminated a spawning pool. It would explain the eyes" Damon said. "Or at least, that's my guess and what my Gene-master has told me."

"_**So they are hybrids?"**_ the zealot said, a glow starting to emanate from his gauntlets. The Zergling ambassador shrunk back in fear.

"No, they are still very much Zerg, though they are now a subspecies instead of Swarm Zerg." Damon said "one of yours may have triggered it and influenced it but their differences are their own."

The Dark Templar gave the mental equivalent of a chuckle, _**"a force for good, created in the depths of battle."**_

"It's almost poetic" Damon finished for him. All sentient creatures in present company stared at him questioningly and the Templar in a small amount of surprise. "I used to get that a lot" he explained.

The Stalker, who had been sitting there and waiting silently, now chose to speak, his mind calm like cool water in a stream, slowly calculating unfathomable things. "_**I have seen the pain that Khala brings you Damon; would these Zerg not be better for utilising Khala? If they can be taught, could they not aid Damon?" **_he said turning to the councillors as he mentioned the last part.

This sent agile minds racing, and all agreed that Damon could benefit from working with them.

The Zergling spoke once more "but what about us? This planet is just as much our home-world as it is yours"

Artanis was about to speak before Zeratul warped in behind them. _**"This small one speaks the truth, many were left behind and lost on Auir, and it would not surprise me if the chain of events that Damon has described came to pass. Who are we to deny them ."**_ He said

"_**Even the mighty Zeratul speaks for their cause"**_ the Templar said, mental voice dripping with sarcasm _**"and he asks us to take a leap of faith once more and this time asking us to, of all things, allow Zerg to remain on Auir"**_

This earned him hard stares from all the Zerg, the reapers preparing to pounce should he try anything stupid, and some of the councillors.

"_**Yours is a difficult dilemma to bring before us"**_ Artanis 'said' _**"it will take us some time before we shall know what to do with these revelations"**_

"Before you go, as I promised, all Swarm Zerg now no longer inhabit Auir" Damon said.

"_**We thank you for this great service you have done"**_ Artanis said before warping back, along with the other Protoss, to the Mothership.

Damon sighed and the Zergling left to tell the queen of the events that had just transpired.

**Author's Notes.**

**Again this one is later then I intended for it to be and more of a bitch to write than (insert humorous comparison here).**

**My update schedule has gone to hell, so I'm just going to update when I have 1500 words to send your way. Basically it's an "update whenever the hell I feel like it" schedule. They'll be less frequent than they have been but still fairly frequent.**

**I just feel like crap, and mostly it's because where I live is in the southern hemisphere, meaning that I've currently got winter, and so far were lucky to have the maximum daily temperature break 10 degrees CELCIUS. It's probably why I haven't been able to write anything recently.**

**Sig: umm what? I only speak English, you might wanna work on you grammar. Its one thing if you slip up, its another if I can't make heads or tails of the review.**

**R&R please, feedback helps keep this story going.**


	14. 14 Renew my subscription please

**I would like to thank all the great StarCraft 2 Fics (including crossovers) for inspiration and ideas; if you look closely I have probably stolen an idea from you somewhere. Probably didn't mean to at the time**

**I do not own StarCraft or its sequel, and/or anything that may come up in a reference during this Fic, I own all Original Content that appears in this fic though.**

Damon approached the unconscious form on the table apprehensively; He was almost ready and just needed to place the finishing touches on the ceremony. The crystals floating around the room would act like high capacity batteries, allowing him to concentrate on directing the energies involved. Damon took a brief notice of the Zerg queens in the room, conduits for the energies to be combined, Golden-Eyed Swarm Zerg alongside the recently discovered Silver-Eyed Rogue Zerg. Damon had his orchestra, now it was time to conduct.

He took in the sight of Kerrigan lying on the table, almost serene. He regretted having to do this but do it he would. He gave the signal for the process to begin.

The queens responded almost immediately and channelled their respective energies into the crystal at such rates that they soon glowed like metal fresh from the forge. The crystal network floating above their heads soon glowed, arcs of energies streaming between them.

When his 'instruments' built to their crescendo, Damon reached out and started drawing on the energies contained within. Damon felt both energies building within him slowly and quickly got to blending the two he placed his hands above Kerrigan's back and channelled this new energy into her, his hands glowing a soft, pale golden colour.

As he channelled he felt Kerrigan's mind and both the personalities vying for dominance over the one body. Damon spread his influence upwards and towards them both and taking a firm grip slammed the two into each other, stitching the two halves of a new whole together with the golden energy he produced.

Damon left Kerrigan's mind recoiling from the brutal treatment and spread the energies which subtly shifted colour as he subtly shifted the purpose and effects of the energies he conducted. He ran his hands up and down her back even touching her in some locations. The result was a steady return of the pink-purple coloured skin that the Queen of Blades had possessed. Her clawed poked their way out of her fingertips toes next as her hair fell out. Soon after her Dreadlocks which she still had from her first infestation grew back to their old size and healthy sheen, then Damon jerked his hands back just as Kerrigan's Blade-Wings burst from her back violently, the base of which bled slightly before her now increased regeneration rate sealed the damage. As the last of her chitinous yet flexible bone-like armour grew back; her eyes snapped open.

The creature stood, her emerald green eyes, which burned with the intensity of a thousand suns, practically bored holes in the back of his skull.

Damon almost cowered in fear before a stray thought hit him. "_Wait, green eyes?"_ Damon had to struggle not to laugh as the absurdity hit him, here was a creature that could easily tear him in half, yet he was worried about the colour of her eyes!

Kerrigan gave him a slap that would have snapped the necks of more fragile creatures, thankfully Damon was slightly tougher to kill than that, but that didn't stop it from hurting like someone had just tried to brand his cheek. Damon stopped laughing as reality slowly ebbed in from the burning hot hand-mark on his face.

Kerrigan was utterly lost, the maniac before her who she knew was eerily familiar, had just started laughing out of nowhere, like she was some sort of sick joke, and something told her to hurt him. The slap to the face was harder than she thought she was capable of, the claws on her fingers diving briefly into the flesh of his cheek, carving bloody furrows. The laughing soon stopped, and whatever part of her that she had acted upon earlier felt satisfied.

To sum it up, Damon was stunned. He looked at her and saw that her facial features, which were now the greyish-green colour that he remembered first seeing them in, showed no mark of recognition.

Damon decided to speak first and break the uncomfortable silence that was now growing

"Umm… hello" he cautiously ventured to say

Kerrigan's face soured "it seems a bit late for that … whoever you are" she retorted

The second part caught Damon off guard "It's me, Damon, you know the kid you practically adopted!"

Now it was Kerrigan's turn to be surprised, her memory was a swirling mist of confusion and wasn't about to give up its secrets anytime soon.

Damon felt for her mind and saw everything in a moment. Her mind was still adjusting, both to the new body and the fact that he had stitched together two fragmented personalities into one cohesive whole.

Kerrigan took the brief lull in the conversation to look around the room and saw several things that frightened her. The first thing she noticed was the network of Crystals floating above her head, still with residual charges of strange brightly coloured energies zipping in oddly coloured and pretty lightning bolts.

The second thing was the collection of strange creatures that were now moving as if waking from a slumber, each had six insect-like feet attached to a mostly humanoid torso, with faces that bore glowing eyes of either a silver or golden brilliance, the silver eyed ones had finer, more articulated mouths than the golden eyed ones which still looked bestial at best. Each sported a strange crest that varied between individuals; many had different colours arranged in unique patterns on both sides of the crest. Each was decked in organic chitinous armour that made them truly alien looking.

When Kerrigan beheld what she could of herself, she was immediately awash with a mixture of warring emotions, she felt like this was how she should look but at the same time she also felt like this was unnatural and like she was wearing a badly fitting glove. In fact this entire situation felt like this.

Kerrigan looked within herself and attacked the fog surrounding her memory. It twisted and turned around her, but she sent it packing with a flex of her now magnified willpower. She fought like this for an eternity, always beating back the mist. Eventually in the deepest recesses of herself she stepped into a small meadow, the rolling knolls and hills seemingly peaceful as Kerrigan stepped forward into this inner sanctum. The mist congealed behind her, and not even her strongest efforts and concentration could get it to budge.

Kerrigan now feeling trapped within her own mind turned and saw a tree, with several silhouettes near there. Kerrigan made her way towards them, hoping that they could help her escape his backwards place inside her head.

As she approached the silhouettes became three distinct people. The first one she noticed had flaming red hair, shining sapphire eyes, and wore a strange white suit with glowing lines running its length. Kerrigan thought that she was familiar, and took comfort in that. The next person looked incredibly like how she did now, almost to the point where she thought that they were clones for a single insane moment. The third and final one had the suit that the first one wore, albeit slightly less clean than the first woman's meticulously maintained suit, and the same read hair, but this one also had slightly smaller dreadlocks like herself and her doppelganger and golden yellow eyes instead of the cool blue of the first woman.

As she approached all three looked up at her intently, like they had been expecting her for some time now, in fact this was exactly what the first one said.

"Who are you?" was she managed to get out

The second one simply said "we are you, fragmented one, or rather WERE you, how else would we be here, inside your head"

The third one now spoke with a disconcerting combination of the other twos voices "this place, here conveniently located in your memory, is a place of inner peace, a sanctum of sorts." She said spreading her arms out to gesture towards the entire meadow.

The newest Kerrigan stared in disbelief at the three, "so what are you doing here?" she asked.

"We can provide counsel for you, whether you need advice or support, you may call on us in time of stress" the first one replied as if reciting a message.

"We also need to give you back something of yours as well" the second said

"And what would that be?" the Newcomer asked

"simply put we are stores of your memories as well, and as you live and experience life once more you shall have a replica of you develop here along with you." The third said getting up from the sitting position that she had been in and approaching her with the other two ghosts.

Kerrigan 4 tried taking a step back from these ghosts, but found that her feet were rooted to the spot, Kerrigan's 1-3 then held her still and took turns placing their index fingers on her temples, and as each one did, memories rushed into her mind, each one providing a new store of information, Kerrigan learned of Damon, the Man that was now also half Zerg and that she thought of as something near a son, and his protégé Tayla, the blind Albino that used her psychic senses to see. She remembered Jim Raynor and her feelings for him, this was going to be difficult to reconcile him with, and she almost shed a tear at this. she remembered the Protoss and how they were not going to receive her well, she then last of all she remembered the Swarm, and the joy that she had taken in the rush and thrill of commanding it against those she saw as her foes, she truly regretted those actions but there was a small part of her that agreed with the feelings that she remembered.

As the last of the memories crowded into her mind the Sanctuary faded to black, finally giving in to her wishes to be removed from it at last.

Kerrigan slowly forced her eyes to open, and was greeted by the alien faces of concerned Protoss medics and more than a few active Psi-blades. Kerrigan tried to get up but a sudden sharp pain in the base of her skull forced her down. Damon who had immortals plasma caster levelled at him reassured her and said that the fault was entirely with him.

When Kerrigan awoke and saw him recognition flashed across her features, and Damon relaxed internally, that put one of his main concerns to rest at last albeit he now was going to have to make sure that the Protoss would allow them to leave without either shooting them down or pursuing them across half the sector, trying to 'purge' them in their religious fervour.

Tayla ran and practically threw herself at Kerrigan; encasing her in the tightest hug she could muster simultaneously startling several of the Zealots. Kerrigan warmly returned the hug as best she could, now that she knew of her enhanced strength she took care not to crack the fragile Terran girls ribs.

Damon denied himself the heart melting show of affection, knowing that the immortal would likely show him its opinion of him the second he tried to get up from the chair. Instead he turned his head to Artanis who was standing next to him.

"I told you that she was harmless now. Can you please allow us to go." He said almost pleadingly to the Hierarch.

"_**we shall need some time to truly determine her intentions, we have followed you on the dilemma the 'Smart' Zerg as you call them have presented us, and have found your judgement to be … reliable"**_ he said, not entirely friendly but neither was he hostile _**"but we must ascertain for sure the veracity of your words before we can allow you to leave unmolested."**_

"And how long might this take?" Damon asked

"_**Another week, no more, be sure that we are thankful for your liberation of Auir from the Zerg. However that was merely a righting of a wrong your kind has inflicted upon us you are alive purely on our goodwill. Pray for your sake that she doesn't turn out to be violent"**_ the Hierarch said.

"One more week, I pray that these delays are not the end of us" Damon said. Zeratul, he could tell, had yet to lie, he saw no meaning to the telling of even half-truths, and he knew a desperate concern when he saw one.

**Author's Notes**

**I fully intended for this to be out yesterday. Sadly my social life intervened (I'm just as amazed as you guys that I have one) and prevented me from managing to squeeze this out, however Saturdays don't present much for me to do, so I finished this for you.**

**Give me the Firebat treatment, I don't care any longer, I update as soon as the chapters are finished with the spellchecker.**

**Longy: thanks and I try and keep updates there for you every day.**

**Kane: once again, thanks for reviewing. Their DNA being influenced by the Protoss means that they are sundered as badly by Psi-blades (they still work) and can channel the lighter energies of the Khala. Remember I said that you need to incinerate a Hybrid with a mixture of both types of energies before its dead-dead and not incapacitated temporarily type dead. Also sadly, it's only Autumn still and true and proper winter will be something to leave even the most ice-proof Russians frozen, no matter how much vodka they may have had forcefully pumped into their systems. (.), (.)**

**R&R, I hope you have as much reading this chapter as I did crafting it.**


	15. 15 Homecoming

**Once again I do not own any part of StarCraft; if I did I would be currently making sure that Heart of the Swarm came out sometime before November (and cause a hell of a shit-storm when Blizzard releases two games in the same year). I own naught but my own ass and any Original content that appears in the Fic.**

Damon hated politics already, despite having only practiced them for two months, and was finally glad to leave Shakuras. He looked out the window and knew that he had caused ripples throughout Protoss society as they geared up to reclaim Auir.

Kerrigan was in her room, her mind more stable now but a very foreign place to the one that had existed shortly before the new her.

Tayla was in the corner clutching at a bucket which she held onto dearly, she had fallen ill recently and her eye colour seemed to be changing.

Damon himself had undergone some changes as well. His channeling of the modified Xel'naga energies had also changed his physiology, not just Kerrigan's. His eyes now glowed a bright emerald green colour and he no longer felt Khala trying to tear apart his DNA whenever he channeled it.

Of course, both of his companions didn't notice this, both too busy with their own problems, Kerrigan trying to redefine herself and re-stabilize her mind, Tayla dealing with the inevitable changes creep consumption wreaks upon the Terran body.

Damon sighed and ordered the Behemoth, their titanic command vessel that once transported the Overminds corporeal form, to take them home. He braced himself for the inevitable as the Behemoth tore a hole in subspace and flew them faster than pure energy across the galaxy.

When Char at last came into view, there was the sound of retching and puking from beside him as the warp jump through the void disagreed with Tayla's 'sensitive' gut. Kerrigan was waiting for them in the overlord docks, and within minutes they had made planet fall several ambassadors from the 'Rouge' Zerg climbing out in their own sentient version of the overlord and looking around in amazement. Damon looked to their greeting party and was relieved to find that they were neither charging him, nor trying to tear each other to shreds.

It was a mostly vanilla party of Zerg, although there were some minor differences, Zerglings which moved faster and had an extra pair of wings, and Ultralisks which looked normal at first, but moved slightly faster and when they arrived, a standard escort (consisting of a mixture of hunter-killers and reapers) climbed out from behind their chitinous headpieces. Others had a series of four grooves recessing into their crests and Damon saw one shoot Spine Crawlers into the ground to steady itself as it halted its momentum. They also had a tail which looked remarkably like a spore colony.

The Hydralisks had an extra pair of arms which Damon could see held recessed Spines, and the reapers moved with better intent and more intelligence than the old versions that he had remembered leaving behind. Damon got Kerrigan on one of the new Zerglings and sent it to the Main Hive. Damon sent the Greeting party back to their duties and bundled some of the Ambassadors, Tayla and himself onto one of the Carrier Ultralisks and headed to the spawning pool.

Abathur greeted him, and after returning the pleasantries, Damon requested a report on the results of his experimentation that he had ceaselessly conducted in his absence. Abathur gave him an abridged version but it was still an impressive list, to be sure. Damon got a few Samples from each of the ambassadors, a bit of a claw here, some chitin there, and handed the samples to Abathur, with a request to try and work some of the intelligence of the Rouge Zerg strains into the Zerg. He also asked about his previous commission.

Abathur finished devouring the new samples and then called a ululating note and a lump of pale grey flesh swam to the near shore of the spawning pool. The gene master then handed Damon the subdued Parasite. Damon sent the Ambassadors away, not wanting them to see the next few events, and approached Tayla, whose green pallor was suddenly paled in far.

Damon, remembering the last time one of these had been implanted, headed for a clear area which he had set aside for this event. He turned to Tayla when they finally reached the center. Damon ran his hands over the parasite, a soft golden glow settling into its flesh and offered it to Tayla.

"this may hurt a bit" he said, lying through his teeth. It wasn't a matter of MAY but rather WILL and instead of A BIT it was more A LOT.

Tayla nodded in acknowledged and took the lump of flesh and tendrils. She had had it in her hand no more than a second before it recognized her DNA and somehow gave a sharp squeaking sound. It immediately used its little tendrils to swing itself into position just beneath her upper back.

It then proceeded to burrow into her back. Without anesthesia, having something the size of a baseball tear its way into your back tended to hurt a LOT. Damon remembered the feeling all too clearly.

Tayla collapsed, screaming in pain as it spread itself thin under her skin then when it made contact with her central nervous system, the screaming stopped as it numbed her senses to the pain. Damon was already running by the time this had happened as the Parasite shot its tendril upwards, towards her brain.

As the two halves connected and were fused together, a giant storm of psionic potential spilling over was unleashed, resulting in a massive nova of energy, most easily described as a satellite laser beam with a planet-side origin. Damon shielded his eyes against the light as the energy faded and it burned ever brighter.

Damon approached Tayla and what he saw was enough to make even Damon's stomach turn. She was changing at an accelerated pace, not feeling the pain that it would otherwise cause her Tayla's Shirt ripped as both an extra pair of arms emerged from underneath the regular ones bloody rivulets streaming to the ground as the parasite tore open her skin to allow for the new body parts. Both pairs of her arms developed a triangular structure which ran the length of her arms, similar to the new structures on the Hydralisks.

Her claws were only an inch in length, and a slim and articulated tail with a foot-long spike at the end shot out of the seat of her pants. Her clothes were ruined anyway by the light 'exoskeleton' (she still had her endoskeleton which coincidentally was now being heavily reinforce) supplanted her regular skin. Her eyes increased in diameter slightly and Damon could tell that she was having her sight restored to her. Kriss slithered up to her as the final changes took place and a pair of mandibles, reminiscent of the pair her Hydralisk sported as well as the throat based spine launcher growing from her mouth.

Tayla, being piloted by the Parasite who was soon to relinquish its hold on her and become subservient to her, then crawled out of her old skin, or rather the tattered remains of it as it had been torn in several places by the changes, her old skin and clothing were then consumed in the fires of a full discharge of acid from Tayla's stomach before the parasite finally relinquished its hold on her body, which then lay there panting heavily as her mind then interfaced with her new body at last.

Damon wished dearly that he hadn't had to have put her through that but it was unavoidable. He picked her up with Kriss and T'zu's help and got her onto the back of one of the new Zerglings, which Abathur had called a Raptorling, and then walked to the main hive.

Halfway there Tayla had recovered enough to walk unassisted and used her new legs which brimmed with Zerg infused power, for the first time.

Abathur had clearly been working on making the changes more expedient, which was probably an understatement.

Kerrigan was shocked at Damon as Tayla managed to make it to the nearest elevated soft surface, which thankfully was a 'bed', before collapsing and passing out. She was probably going to have nightmares tonight, Damon knew that he had, and retreated to his room before Kerrigan could recover enough to pull herself away from Tayla and (probably literally) chew his ear off. He then did the rough equivalent of locking his door before retreating to his guitar and strumming his problems to the wind. It was the same soothing melody that he had played whenever he had found it all a bit much from him and dealing with the violent changes that had happened to both his closest adoptive relatives, dealing with the ever fickle Protoss council, and basically bleeding himself dry emotionally dealing with more problems than he could care to count.

Kerrigan 'picked' both the biological and psionic locks of his door (she was going to need to make another lock spider) to find Damon with the neck of his guitar in one hand T'zu in his other arm, and sleeping deeply. He was emotionally drained from the past few months and deserved it more than he thought she knew. He hadn't let it show the entire time but it was an absolute miracle, if they still existed in this day and age, that he had lasted without breaking down like this.

She closed the door and left without a word, there was time for her earlier intentions later, but right now their small group of hybrids needed to rest and recover from their individual stressed and smiled to herself, she felt a brighter future ahead of them, and while she couldn't explain why without invoking something that she considered 'hocus pocus' the gut feeling stayed there, promising a brighter future for those around her.

**Author's Notes.**

**I promised myself a few weeks back that I wouldn't do chapters on weekends as I have too much to do then. I can see how long that promise held up.**

**I have poured my heart and soul into these last two chapters and have spared no effort in trying to bring you all the detail that occurred to me to write at the time**

**There seems to be no reviews today, what a shame I enjoy answering your questions here and your opinion is (cough cough) important to me.**

**Does it really need to be said once more? R&R or I WILL find you, trust me its good for your health. (please note the above sentence is merely a joke. I couldn't snap shins for shit)**

**Anyways, Enjoy the story.**


	16. 16 old friends, new allies

**I do not own StarCraft, I am not Blizzard, I am but a fan of their work; though as the author of this fic though I do own the Original Content that appears in this fic.**

Raynor had hoped to never have to see this place again. Once again Char was host to the Zerg swarm, which had reached a global population spread across Char again, but Raynor had a gut feeling that something was wrong with Kerrigan. He had allowed her to go, but that didn't mean that he wasn't going to just leave her to the swarm like Mengsk had.

"Brudda, you need to lighten up, Mah spectres ain't found anyting yet" Tosh said from beside him

He was in the cantina aboard the Hyperion, waiting for the spectres to report back on anything that they could find dirt-side.

"I would, Tosh but I can't shake the feeling that something's happened" he replied

"Evah since Zeratul showed" Tosh said

Raynor had gotten used to Tosh's habit of reading his mind, but it still unsettled him how he was privy to every secret in the raiders.

A few months ago Zeratul had visited them once more, with another Ihan crystal, this one showed a titanic battle which had shocked both to their core. Kerrigan had volunteered herself soon after the visit and both had left Mar Sara soon after; though about a week ago though Raynor had felt an off feeling coming through his psychic connection with Kerrigan.

It had persisted and nagged at him until he had grabbed a small force, gathered them upon the Hyperion and, following a gut feeling, had pointed them in the direction of char. All his old lieutenants had followed him, Matt, Swann and Tosh had volunteered along with a small portion of the Raiders who had felt dissatisfied with peacekeeping or retirement.

Raynor got up and made his way to the bridge, where Horner was getting ready to land forces on Char, should they need to.

Raynor was restless, it was excruciating, having to wait for the Spectres to finish before he went down to the surface to find her, he knew what had likely happened to her but he needed to see it with his own two eyes.

As he processed this thought the comms lit up like a switchboard, the spectres confirmed and assured their safety when they landed, but otherwise didn't say much, instead insisting that he see the situation for himself.

Raynor jumped into a medivac and took the seat closest to the door for himself as the various marines, in their powered combat suits settled in for the flight.

When they landed, Raynor was greeted with a small force of Zerg, each subtly different from the ones he was familiar with, as well as some completely new strains. A Zergling which stood on its hind legs and walked around on them, and had unusual silver eyes, introduced herself as Triss.

"Our lord has been expecting you for some time now" she said "I can take you to him"

"Thanks," he gruffly replied "much appreciated"

On her instruction, Raynor climbed into the back of one of the 'Carriers' as Triss called it with aforementioned Rouge Zerg ambassador and looked out the back as the Carrier Reared up slightly and ran for the main hive.

During all his time fighting the Zerg, Raynor had been in an actual Zerg hive once. That time it had been dying and possessed none of the architecture he saw now. The Zergling left him and he saw something that made his mind reel, He recognized it as Tayla, but she had been infested and now possessed some rather unlikely body parts/configurations, including another pair of arms and a vicious looking tail.

Tayla looked as surprised to see him as he was to her; though with her mouth hidden behind those mandibles it was kind of hard to tell.

"Damon said that he was expecting you" she said "even I could feel you waiting in orbit."

Raynor was still too stunned to talk and just followed the creature leading him by the hand to a grand (by Zerg standards) 'Throne' room. Damon was off to the side, the throne unoccupied as he played around with T'zu. Looking up and realized that he had been caught in an unguarded moment, he forgot to restrain T'zu.

When companion and Marine were finally separated, much to the amusement of the Hybrids, Raynor finally spoke

"Where is she?" he asked, as the sensation of being watched tingled at the edge of his senses.

He turned around to see Kerrigan. His suspicions were confirmed; she now donned the form of the Queen of Blades, though through their mental connection, Raynor felt that her mind was a different place to the violent being that had once occupied that body. Raynor looked into her eyes and was startled when he realized that they were a stunning emerald green instead of the hot gold colour.

Kerrigan laughed as Raynor stood there stunned, and gave him a playful shove to force him off balance and bring him back to reality.

It worked well enough but Raynor's brain was still on overload, and he didn't say much.

Raynor looked around and saw that the three, including their companions, all had glowing green eyes instead of the gold he had seen outside, typical of regular Zerg.

"A small side effect of using the right sort of energies" Damon explained as he noticed that Raynor was staring at his eyes.

Raynor was struggling; he needed an anchor, something NORMAL to retreat to. He saw a Spectres outline in one of the corners

Blade de-cloaked and cracked open another vial of terrazine, He moved the vial to his nose and inhaled the contents, the psycho-reactive components of the gas working as his mind underwent a mind shattering explosion of psionic power which instantly caused all Zerg in the room to look at him as he made his presence felt.

Damon's face light up in recognition, which then turned to a fierce snarl as the C-14 rifle was lowered at his face.

Blade probed the mind of the creature before him and was surprised to find that it was his old buddy, albeit more battle worn and _feral_ than when he had last seen him. He dropped the rifle, unsure how to react

"Brudda? Is that you mon?" he said nervously

"Blade, where have you been? I didn't think I would see you again" Damon said

"It has bin a while Mon" blade said Rasta accent as strong as ever.

As the two long-time friends caught up, with stories exchanged which left both laughing hysterically, Raynor saw Azura, who was only less friendly than T'zu in the fact that she had yet to pounce him, and what appeared to be a miniature Hydralisk, who Tayla introduced as Kriss. Kriss crawled onto his backpack and just stayed there, letting out a contented hiss as she warmed herself by the exhaust outlets for the power pack on his armour.

Raynor smiled, Damon and Tayla were still kids at heart it seemed and he hoped that, no matter what, that wouldn't leave them, but Kerrigan was still different, mostly alien to him. He couldn't decide what to do yet and just raised his visor to show his face.

Kerrigan was unsettled by Raynor's arrival, when they had detected him in orbit above Char Kerrigan had her feelings for him bubble to the surface. She now had no idea how to act, to calm him and what personality to work from. In the end, after a few moments of awkward silence, Kerrigan was surprised when he hugged her, and kissed her passionately. She returned the embrace, not caring for anyone's opinions anymore.

There was a shocked silence as everyone realised what was going on, going so far as to actually have Kriss fall off of Raynor's Power pack. When the two finally separated there was a small cheer for the two, and a few mentions of cast-ferric (cast-iron) balls from Blade.

Somehow despite the change of species Kerrigan still managed to blush deeply, much to the amusement of everyone else. She didn't mind but it was still embarrassing, making her blush even deeper.

Damon was practically in hysterics by now, holding his sides they hurt so bade, he had never seen a Zerg blush before, and certainly not like that. He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe before someone said something to him and a spine ended up in his manhood.

This got him to stop in all of three seconds as he instinctively pulled the spine out and clutched at the region that he had been shot in, resulting in a round of laughter from those present. Thankfully he healed fast and perfectly, so there wasn't even a scar but the area was still sensitive. It was just his luck as a hive queen entered the room, both to give a report and curious as to the source of all the noise.

What the queen saw was incomprehensible to her mind, and looking into Damon's she saw that this was an unusual situation to say the least. She just dropped the report in there and slowly backed out.

This resulted in another round of laughter. But Damon's face turned serious, they looked at him as he held up a hand for them to stop.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" he said business-like "it appears that we have a bug-hunt on our hands."

"A what?" Tayla asked, everyone else (companions excluded) had served long enough to know what the military jargon meant

"We seem to have a hybrid here" Damon said "and I have a feeling it's the one I have a history with"

Both Raynor and Kerrigan looked at him surprised, Tayla in awe, and Blade working his enhanced mental capacity through the possibilities and then plotting god knows how many plans.

Minutes later, they were aboard a Carrier and headed for the last known location of the hybrid. Damon worked the entire way there to reproduce the flashes of burning white energy which had destroyed the Hybrids in the prophecy.

The Hybrid didn't have to wait long for them to arrive. He had been sent back to the dark lord twice by this mortal, but he wasn't going to let it happen three times. He waited for them to step out of the Carrier, and he saw the creature he wanted. He wanted to rush him and tear his throat out, but that would have to wait. The trap was baited and Damon was biting.

Damon thought he saw a blue glow out the corner of his eyes, somewhere near the forest (why wasn't the creep out this far yet?) and, dragging the group with him, made for it.

At the edge of his mind he felt something say "duck" and he did right as a lightning bolt passed right over his head and fried one of the marines behind him. Damon retaliated, using his speed and agility to make his travel erratic enough by flinging himself from tree to tree at random.

The hybrid saw this coming and was ready. He struck out with his own tendril and scored a direct hit

Damon didn't even notice as he impaled himself up to the base of the tendril and slapped his palm into the hybrids head, vaporizing a large chunk. Seeing the result and with his redundant systems kicking in, pouring adrenaline into his system, Damon slapped handful after handful of energy into the creature who stood there stunned as Damon landed rapid fire blows on his head, each time blowing a bigger hole in the creatures head as the remnants of the last handful burned away at the edges.

Damon with such a large amount of adrenaline dumped into his system was a very fast thing, and soon he was left with a dead, headless hybrid with white energies pouring through its body in large white veins. Soon there was naught but ashes left, as the energies incinerated the hybrids body and Damon felt no presence leaving the charred remains like he did the last time he had killed a hybrid.

"Remind me not to fuck with you" one of the marines said staring at the brief yet vicious battle

**Author's notes**

**Wow three new chapters in as many days, I thought I wasn't going to be able to do this again with all my schoolwork starting to pile up like it was last week.**

**also where are the reviews?**

**R&R plz**


	17. 17 deus ex machina

**I do not own StarCraft; I am not Blizzard (release Heart of the Swarm already; i want my grandchildren to enjoy the Legacy of the Void). Original Content is mine though**

He observed this strange turn of events, his Hybrid disappearing in a burning energy. He looked around himself in the void, but the small part of his essence never returned to him to be remade anew. This angered him greatly and several parts of the Void, which he had painstakingly restabilised, collapsed again as the scream of rage that issued forth from his consciousness.

=Meanwhile, on Char=

Damon collapsed, he would live but only barely, he had too many redundant organs and alternate systems in his body for him to die, despite his stomach looking like he had just taken an un-sieged Crucio tank round from point blank. The back of his mind was dimly aware that there was now more than a few medics pointing their healing beams at him, trying to get him to stay conscious whilst Kerrigan tried to psionically seal the wound.

He felt a screaming sound there as well, it hurt slightly, but it was ignorable, instead he allowed himself to black out and have his accelerated regeneration handle the gaping wound in his torso.

He woke up to T'zu lying next to him; it was dark outside the Terran building he was in and Looking outside Damon realized that he was still on Char. Damon concluded that they must have landed a Command centre on Char to try and work their magic healing him.

Damon settled in, he had almost missed beds, but also felt uncomfortable as he had also gotten used to the cocoons and pods that the Zerg kept aside for sleeping Hybrids, which would cause Claustrophobia in some people.

In the morning he received three visitors, his adoptive mother, father and his adopted daughter.

Kerrigan gave a chuckle as she read Damon's line of thoughts drawing Raynor's semi-confused look; she just left him to put two and two together on his own. Damon gave Tayla a hug as she got close.

Damon may not have been a good father so far, more of a travelling companion, but it made his heart swell when Tayla called him 'Dad'.

Raynor was feeling kind of left out, Kerrigan must have read some sort of amusing thought from someone's mind, and He knew it wasn't him or she would have said so, and it took him a moment or two to remember that Damon had adopted Tayla from that orphanage on Haven.

"Nice to see that your alive and well" he said.

"I knew I would make it, I got too many duplicate organs etcetera to have really died from that" he said as if getting impaled and losing half his torso was perfectly normal to him "according to Izsha Mom could regrow one of those blade wings in seconds" he said indicating Kerrigan, using the term more due to the moment than anything.

Kerrigan blushed, eliciting a brief snicker from Damon before a glare and a twitch from Tayla and Kriss quickly shut him up.

Raynor stored this away; he would be stunned by that later. "Kerrigan told me what you guys need now" he said.

"Yeah, we're looking for the other two, their faces wouldn't happen to be familiar would they" Damon asked

"I can get the word out; we just won't say what for though, that'll be your job" Raynor said "I don't like this, but the concept of lying is a foreign thought to most Protoss, I trust Zeratul"

"I know you hate it, this is serious problem though, I need all the help I can get and if I don't need to go door to door then that's all the better, it means we waste less time" Damon assured him.

Raynor grudgingly agreed and left to send a message to Emperor Valerian Mengsk, who had succeeded Arcturus in the shit-storm that Mengsk's shoddy commanding and the public revelations of the genocide he had incited during the Great War.

Valerian had made good on his promise and was currently working hard to undo the damage that his father had wrought upon the sector. His father had mysteriously disappeared a few weeks ago from the prison he was being held in. everyone just assumed that he had been shanked and forced out an airlock, no one truly missed him now that he was gone.

Damon walked down to the cafeteria, Kerrigan and Tayla in tow, and saw what they had on the menu. They ordered a breakfast consisting mostly of different cuts and kinds of meat, (steaks, bacon, eggs, hamburgers etc.) and when the food arrived six hungry mouths made short work of everything. The synthetic food didn't taste very good but it was better than nothing, and creep gets boring after several months of nothing but a steady diet of Creep.

The three tried to busy themselves as best as they could, there would be some time before they could crusade across all of the Terran settlements searching for the last two hybrids with the swarm at their beck and call, and the brood mothers could more than handle the preparations for that. They literally had nothing to do in the swarm so they tried to help the Terrans however they could.

Damon was hyped on coffee all night though and pulled an all-nighter, turns out it was one of the things he couldn't metabolize well, and was practically bouncing off of the roof of the main hangar (which could easily house the Odin with room to spare) for hours.

Damon was lifting a crate almost twice his size when he saw something that made him almost accidentally crush the toes of the SCV he was helping. There in the early morning crowd was someone who could only be described as a big, shaved, Terran bear.

Damon left the screaming man to his agony and approached the giant. He was eight feet tall and had muscles that could put an Ultralisk to shame, he wore a skin-tight Nano fibre utility suit (likely skin-tight only because he was so large) and a baseball cap. He was smoking a large cigar as Damon approached him.

Damon approached the man and tapped him on the shoulder. The giant turned around, saw him, and Damon was only just able to dodge the ham sized fist that was swung at him. The giant realized what he was swinging at and promptly stopped.

"Sorry, force of habit, ya kinda spooked me there" he apologized

"Well seeing as my face is intact, it's okay. Besides I haven't needed to dodge like that in a long time" Damon reassured him, inwardly laughing.

"Well, I suppose so, anyways what is it that you wanted?" he asked

"It's kinda hard to explain, really. You know that hybrid that got me in here?" Damon asked him

"Yeah, you looked like a siege tank had hit ya" he said

"Yeah well, sources say that there's an army of them coming, and according to the same visions, there will be a small group of five people who can stand against them and win. I think you might be one of them" Damon said unsure how to mention the part about him being a Zerg-hybrid

"Okay, I'm glad that the higher-ups told us all this." He said sarcastically

"By the way, I'm Damon" Damon mentioned

"Isaac, but I prefer Zack. I'm guessing that you are one of the five?" he said.

"Got it in one" Damon said.

Zack looked over Damon's shoulder and saw the SCV cursing and shouting for help, his toes neatly crushed and amputated by the weight of the container.

"You wanna get that?" Zack asked him "or should i?"

"Oh sheet, right" Damon nearly shouted as he rushed to help the SCV.

He got some angry glares from the SCV operator as he lifted the box off of the SCV, and then moved it to the neat stack that he had been helping to create all night.

Tayla woke up from her nightmare with a gasp. She had been having the same dream for some time now, it started out similar to the prophecy that Zeratul had shown them, but as Damon fought he got angrier and angrier and eventually just as the big Hybrid showed up, Damon lost control. Damon then turned around and said something incomprehensible before he waved his arm and the whole world went black, soon after Tayla always woke up the voice speaking echoes in her head that she couldn't quite make out.

The last time she had had dreams like this it had been the night after Damon had let her see for the first time. When she mentioned the events she had seen to Damon during one of his visits he had looked shocked and asked who had told her his life story.

She hadn't told him about the voice though, the one that had talked to her throughout both dreams, and had explained what she saw. The voice which had thrummed with energy and a sense of truthfulness had explained to her then that Damon wasn't a monster but a person in monsters clothing, it now had made it perfectly clear that the new dream was a vision of the future, and to prevent Damon from falling to his instincts.

Tayla got out of bed and worked her way to the door (fending off a sneak attack from Kriss as she went) before closing her eyes and concentrating. She saw through the walls and located Damon and using her sixth sense and hurried towards him.

She had to warn him about himself.

**Author's Notes**

**SO SORRY ABOUT THE WAIT. This chapter just wasn't letting me write it, and I just kept running out of time. I just couldn't make it in a way that I was happy with it. I'm still not 100% happy but it will have to do, I've kept you waiting for 4 days more than I intended.**

**Any who I look forward to some reviews, input and feedback is something that helps keep this story awesome, I'm waiting and listening.**

**Read, Review and subscribe pplz. Till next time PEACE OUT!**

**Spoiler Alert! (must be said with Mengsk's accent or dramatic effect is totally lost) okay so to those who i have accidentally misguided, Arcturus Mengsk is NOT dead, he is too much of a character, a villain to discard so easily. no he has been picked up by a greater force than himself; i can only give you inaccurate information and half-stories because this information is currently ... unavailable for your perusal.**


	18. 18 one big happy family

**Again sorry for the delay, but right now it's a rather hectic time for me, a lot of exams and tests are coming up for me.**

**I am not Blizzard; therefore I do not own StarCraft, its sequel or any expansions for either. I am the Author of the fic; therefore I DO own Original content.**

"And you let this …thing mess around with your genetics?" Stetman asked, clearly disgusted by Abathur

"More or less." Damon replied

"And the fact that it's mentally unstable didn't disturb you at all?" Stetman asked

"he still does a good job at messing with genetics, he has an obsession, not a psychopathic killing rage" Damon said "we weren't handing out titles when we called him our Gene-master, his methods worked and several strains in the Zerg swarm resulted from his work, for example, all he needs is some blood and he can create infestation parasites to suit that person"

"So why is he here?" Stetman asked

"Raynor thought that you two could work together, we both know that you've worked to create several new technologies from Zerg DNA and abilities, and I'm sure that you might inspire his next big creation"

"Fine, but I don't like this" Stetman said

Damon moved for the door, before adding "I wouldn't piss him off either, I lost an arm to him last week"

It was a joke, Damon may have been almost obliterated by explosives going off in his face several times, but Abathur had never given him a reason to start growing arms back, still Stetman all but wet himself when Damon left the room.

"Jeez, and you say I overdo it when I joke around" Tayla said.

"When did you become my conscience?" Damon said

"When I got a weird epiphany about you and losing your temper" Tayla said

"Is THAT why they insist on anger management classes for me now?" Damon said jokingly

"I'm serious!" Tayla said indignantly.

"I'm just playing with ya. I can take a hint … most of the time" Damon said to an unbelieving Tayla.

"Anyway, how's Bear?" Tayla said. She had taken to calling Zac Bear, due to his substantial muscle mass.

"It's gonna take some time for him to … get used to the changes" Damon said

"He's still angry at you for not telling him isn't he?" Tayla said seeing right through the word play

"Try six vases and a .44 magnum" Damon said downcast

"Better than the Impaler rifle" Tayla said in an effort to try and cheer him up.

"True" Damon said. The Impaler had actually hurt.

"Where does he get this stuff anyway?" Tayla asked him.

"Last time I went in there it looked like he had half the armoury in sidearms in there" Damon replied with a grin. "Anyways he's angry at me, not you or Kerrigan."

"He seems to like me" Tayla said

"It makes sense I guess" Damon said "though I doubt anything short of Stockholm syndrome will stop the anger"

Just then Zac rounded the corner and saw them. The hulking figure stood still for a second before giving a savage battle cry and lunging for Damon, in an effort to wring his neck out.

Damon just jumped and grabbed the ceiling before using his spine Crawlers on his back to quickly move out of sight range of Zac.

Tayla sighed, Bear had only recently changed but he had picked up how to use his new body faster than any of them. His thick carapace which was covered in sharp hooks and spines could shrug off almost anything that they could throw at him, short of an orbital bombardment, a nuke or siege tanks. He had developed four arms that grew from his back with three fingers each, and his flattened tail and general body shape meant that he could curl into a ball and roll around in a wrecking ball of doom manoeuvre. His psychic powers, along with control of the Zerg swarm, focused mainly on defensive abilities, making him practically invulnerable for a decent length of time. The words Armadillo from hell came to mind if you looked at him for too long.

"Don't pursue him Bear, he actually regrets not telling you" Tayla said

"I'm still half Zerg!" Zac shouted still clearly angry and not thinking straight

"And he should have gotten your permission before he slapped the parasite onto your back, but it was necessary for you to be infested." Tayla said, trying not to agree with him or defend Damon's actions

"Oh yes because of some doomy doom of doom" Zac said sarcastically

"I'm not going to argue Xel'Naga prophetics with you, instead why don't you calm down and make peace with your position now." Tayla said giving up

Tayla ignored Zac shouting at her and just walked off to find which end of the base Damon was at now.

=meanwhile=

Kerrigan looked at the latest result from behind the one-way mirror. Ever since the broadcast there had been endless numbers of people, it surprised her when she saw number of people that volunteered, it surprised her more was the sheer mix of them, and a decent number bore superficial to no resemblance to the sketch created to resemble the person in the vision. Some people did, but it wasn't strong enough to warrant a test infestation to find out.

What was truly amazing were the fanatics, cultists and lunatics that seemed to worship the Zerg (amazing what nut-jobs are hiding in the woodwork sometimes) and came to Char in swarms and droves begging them for an infestation.

To these Crazies she secretly introduced them to the Infestors, who gladly gave them what they wanted, though she doubted that she would be able to bring it up without some sort of backlash from the others.

However this latest "match" actually fit the description. She brought a see-through holographic version of the sketch and held it to the image of his face on the screen. This person could have been the fifth members twin brother, he was a weedy, scrawny man of about twenty-something and looked like he was expecting something to jump out at him at any moment.

Kerrigan stepped out of the secret compartment and quietly crept up behind him. It didn't take long for him to pick up on her presence and his overlarge eyes nearly popped out of his skull he opened them so wide.

This hurt Kerrigan to no end, she may have been able to define herself somewhat but she was still very self-conscious. She didn't want to be an object of fear for others.

"If I wanted to hurt you, you would have several wounds to tend to by now" she tried to reassure him

"t-the Queen of Blades!" the man stammered still otherwise frozen in horror.

"Died a year ago during the assault on Char, I may look like her, but I assure you that she and I are two different people" Kerrigan said

"Are you her twin infested sister then?" the man said

"In a sense, yes" Kerrigan said. She didn't want to terrify this poor soul more than she already had.

"What do you want with me?" the man said, recovering some but still remained in the seat.

"Well your friends were right when they said that you looked like the sketch" Kerrigan said

"So what is it that you need ME for?" the man said "I just run a store on Tyrador, I'm no great warrior"

"You have psionic potential, and we need that, let us take care of the rest. As for what we need you for, I might need the others to explain this in a way that doesn't scare you worse"

"Others?" he asked.

"A variety of Terrans who have been given a prophecy which details five infested Terrans and an army of … Zerg-Protoss hybrids duking it out for the galaxies survival." Kerrigan said

"Infested Terrans? Wait does that mean …" he said

"That was the intention behind the exercise" Kerrigan said

The man processed this for several moments at first scared, but the look faded to reveal a nonchalance that she hadn't seen in a long while

"Then sign me up" he said

"Oh god, not another …" Kerrigan started, thinking he was another crazy

"No, no it's not that. I'm tired of being trodden on, back on Tyrador if you aren't a high ranking Dominion scientist your life sucks. Valerian has yet to address a lot of issues there. And the way you put it has me sold that this is the quickest route to get out" he said

Kerrigan was surprised with his way of thinking and realised that there was a certain freedom that came with Zerg infestation.

"Alright, you should come with me then"

"Before I do, would you mind answering a question?"

"Go ahead"

"It's your eyes, in all the reports they burned a golden colour, why are they green now?"

"Reports?" Kerrigan asked

"I worked near the science labs" he explained

"They're green because of a new process for infestation" she answered

"Fascinating, by the way, I'm Nathan" he said "you?"

"Just call me Kerrigan, they all do already" Kerrigan said, keeping the "twin sister" act going

"Ok" Nathan said

They both walked outside, Kerrigan drawing murmurs of shock and awe from the onlookers waiting outside for examination. At least three crazies were pointed in the direction of the Infestors. Kerrigan entered the Medical bay to find Abathur weaving strains of DNA again, the two doctors watching in a mixture of horror and fascination.

"Welcome to day one of our big dysfunctional family" Kerrigan said to a confused Nathan

**Authors notes**

**So we have the five together at last, and a little drama. Trying to write this chapter was a bitch until I got to the part with Kerrigan, I need a break.**

**I'm just going to keep this short. Don't forget to R&R I'll be back shortly with another chapter I promise.**


	19. 19 the face of the enemy

**I'm back, sorry about the stupidly long wait. But I've had my hands full with the research project (I'm doing yr. 12 at high school) and other miscellaneous projects from other subjects. I would also like to thank Ragnarok666 for pushing me to finish writing this; it'll all be over soon I promise. You should also go check his stuff out.**

"Dad, would you stop hitting that … thing and help me?" Tayla said

"Fine … what do you need help wi… oh" Damon said turning around and seeing Tayla trying to stop a more playful than necessary Ultralisk from "hugging" her

"Down boy. Bad. Get off her!" Damon commanded it, who then looked at him and got off of Tayla whining.

"Those Pygalisks are more trouble than they look" Tayla said "but they work great with the PR department"

"Wait, public relations? Since when were we a government?" Damon asked jokingly

"Since you decided to ally the swarm with the Terrans using hearts and minds tactics." Tayla said matter of factly.

"Oh, then" Damon replied smiling and giving Tayla a small punch on her upper right arm. "By the way how is Abathur doing? I'm sure he's got something from Zac by now"

"_**of course my lord"**_ Abathur said, contacting him telepathically through the hive mind and showing him images of a quadruped creature that had several (hopefully Tal'darim) Protoss Zealots attacking it, their psy blades just bounced off of its massively dense carapace, while it stomped them with its massive spiked feet, and slashed them with a flattened tail. The creature then rolled into a ball and crushed several reinforcements who were not expecting it.

Damon turned to Tayla "so any ideas on a name?" he asked

"That might have to wait, another colony's been found demolished, this time they're still there though"

"Good call Kerrigan, she might be able to control Zac, and Nate seems to like her." Damon said

Tayla was silent and looked off into the distance for a bit before saying that they would meet him at the leviathan

"Great let's go" Damon said

Tayla took this cue to jump onto Damon's back and held on tight to the spine crawlers before Damon let a high-pitched yet savage cry and gave an almighty jump, landing roughly 20 metres away before taking off Tayla holding on for dear life.

They soon met up with the others.

Kerrigan waved "what took you so long?" she asked

"Just had to do a little cross country travel to get here that's all" Damon said, letting a pale (how did she do that?) and shivering Tayla off of his back. Tayla quickly recovered though

"You idiot, I told you not to jump that ravine" she berated Damon

Kerrigan's eyes glowed bright. Damon instinctively shrunk from this now VERY scary woman.

Damon wasn't expecting a low power bolt of psionic energy though.

Damon found that while he could move his fingers, it wasn't far and that Kerrigan had paralysed him and was keeping him restrained.

Zac just chuckled and carried him inside the leviathan. He had calmed down, with Kerrigan's suggestion of subtle revenge, and not outright anger. It amused him to no end to see Damon brought low like that.

"What DO you eat man, there is no way you weigh this much on just creep" he said hefting Damon on his shoulder.

"_**Some questions you DON'T want the answer to" **_Damon said telepathically, his mouth still numb

"Amen to that" Nathan said, settling down for the ride.

Nathan had taken after Reapers to a slightly more obvious degree, he had similar scythe claws, but they were arranged into a hand-like structure with three claws. He had four of these on his back. He was also covered in a similar carapace to Kerrigan's but it was thicker and resembled more of a ridged suit of armour like Zac's than anything. It had several openings in it that he seemed to be able to secret substances that healed Zerg or spray acid from. It was particularly amusing to Zac to see Damon and Nathan spar for the first time and have a large section of Damon's body melt painfully due to one of these 'jets'.

The trip was mostly uneventful (there was a dominion battlecruiser that happened to 'bump' into them, but they quickly shat themselves and warp jumped out of there) and they were soon above the colony.

The leviathan dropped the five from orbit and waited.

Damon had never gotten used to these things, and he knew Nathan would be feeling incredibly green right now with all the shaking. It occurred to him that they still had a ways to go before they would be ready for anything like what they had seen.

There was a sudden thudding noise as the pod crashed into the ground, followed by a blessed cessation of the shaking which was upsetting his stomach so badly. Damon clawed his way out and stood. He saw the others do the same around him, and Tayla quickly searched the colony with her psionic sight. They found nothing; there wasn't a single living person in the entire colony left.

Nathan then said "wait a second, this is creep, and we haven't been here at all, so why are there signs of a Zerg attack here?"

"In the original prophecy the Zerg helped the hybrids eradicate the Protoss" Kerrigan said

"That would explain it, so we need to find the hybrids soon, I don't like the idea of facing any other nasty surprises during this trip" Damon said "Tayla, can you find the hybrids?"

"Yep!" she said before closing her eyes for a brief moment before she started walking in a direction.

They followed Tayla, walking for a while, before a concerning lack of anything living or bodies became evident to the travellers.

They travelled through the night, and the next morning they found an old Zerg hive. Tayla ignited her hands with the energies Damon had taught them to wield against the Hybrids, before stepping in and was quickly hit with a massive blow to the stomach from a Hybrid that the Terrans had taken to calling Reavers.

This prompted several bolts of energy from Kerrigan which quickly demolished the Hybrid, but a distant roar told them that the Reaver was not the only Hybrid about.

Soon the whole Hive cluster was buzzing with them, but they didn't attack, there were roughly 20 in all, and all Five Terran-Zerg looked about them, this would be a tough fight.

"Your presence poses a threat to the master's plans, you will be eradicated in his name, to make way for his plan" one of them said

"Mind telling us what that is" Zac asked

"It is not for you to comprehend, just DIE!" the Hybrid said, before they rushed the Terran-Zergs

Damon quickly had three Reavers dissolving in front of him, before Kerrigan obliterated the few Hybrids charging their lightning. Damon then took a huge blow to the stomach, before Zac stepped in and snapped its neck with burning hands while shouting something about being the one to kill Damon. Tayla stood near him as he recovered with Nathan slapping copious quantities of his healing salves on the rest of the team. She quickly had five Hybrids to her name, energy coated spines flying at anything even remotely hybrid and had wounded a further six before Kerrigan or Zac finished them off. Soon there was one standing and at the mercy of the five, who were recovering from the multitude of 'scratches' that the hybrids lightning and claws had dealt.

Damon stood over this last one, which he had gotten the others to spare before saying "tell your 'master' that we are coming for him, and to expect a fight" He said before he tore the Hybrids head off.

"Is it really wise to gloat at an enemy we know so little about?" Nathan said

"No but if he gets angry, he'll get sloppy, and that only works to our advantage" Damon replied.

They all stopped to listen to a psychic screaming. It was as if the hive mind was hearing it from a long way away.

"Well I must say, I am impressed; Taking on a swarm a' hybrids outnumbered four to one. Most impressive" a familiar voice said.

Kerrigan immediately spun around lightning charging visibly

"Mengsk, I promised that I would kill you next time I saw you, why are you here?" she said

"Because, my dear, the master has decreed that you shall die, and I am only too happy to help" he said, a subtle red glow emanating from his eyes.

"Not if I kill you first" Kerrigan said, starting to pace around him.

Mengsk collapsed into a coughing fit, before his skin rippled and tore, as a bloody mess issued from his back

As if on replay he said "I will RULE this sector, or see it burned to ASHES around me"

Soon a horrific, twisted monstrosity stood before them, equal parts Zerg, Protoss and Terran.

"You shall BURN!" it shouted.

**A/N**

**Ha! Cliff-hanger and the return of Mengsk, I'm trying to wrap this fic up and I thought I would start eliminating loose ends. This is just a story update; I'm trying to get back into writing this fic again.**

**Thank you for being patient with me, and once again thankyou Ragnarok666 for getting me to write this again, I've needed that kick for a while methinks.**

**School schedule has cleared somewhat with the new semester, so I'm going to be able to write a little more**

**R&R people, *hefts sword* catchphrase.**


	20. 20 throwing down the glove

**Thanks for all your support; I'll try and get the chapters to you as soon as I finish writing them, though I may find myself writing less and less as the school year hits its climax and I'm continually snowed under by huge summative assignments.**

Kerrigan ably dodged the claws which were the size of the combat knives the marines regularly employed.

what was formerly Mengsk and now a raging hulk. stopped swinging at her long enough for maniacal laughter and to repeat his last two lines as Mengsk. It was at least twelve feet tall, was mostly pale flesh which was surprisingly resistant to anything they could throw at it. It had several small mouths all over it which grabbed and tore at anything the monstrosity touched. It had huge muscled arms as thick as Zac's body, and it used these to devastating effect, or it would have if they hadn't managed to dodge most of its slow attacks that it telegraphed horribly.

"we can't touch this thing!" Nathan shouted as he wrenched what remained of his clawed hands free of the creatures arm.

"I'm hitting it with everything I've got!" Tayla shouted from across the clearing, her spines doing minimal damage the energies coating them guttering out after a few seconds seemed to do the most damage

"I can't charge anything up, he just goes for me if I do!" Kerrigan shouted, before she flung a small Psy-Storm at the beast.

"Tayla, can you see if Raynor can lend us a hand?" Damon said "I don't know if a Yamato gun's gonna tickle this thing, but it's worth a shot."

Tayla quickly ran a safe distance and used the relay of overlords and queens they had left in their wake to beam a psychic message back to Char.

"message sent." Tayla said as she returned to the clearing.

The creature tried a new tactic and threw itself at the Terrans in a wide armed tackle. They narrowly dodged the attack, mostly through the graces of their ability to burrow and move out of the landing zone.

This confused the creature to no end, and it looked about wildly, but then it seemed to figure something out and started digging at where they had been, then around the area near it. Kerrigan jumped up, quickly climbed a nearby tree for the cover the foliage would provide her.

Her concentration was interrupted by Tayla screaming in pain, she apparently had been found by the creature and was promptly having both the arms on her left side eaten. She shot numerous spines at its face, which seemed to anger it, but it didn't stop.

When it finally pulled her out of the ground by the stumps of her left arms, Tayla had passed out from the shock. It put her on the ground and raised both its hands above its head ready to deal a blow that would finish Tayla off in one almighty blow.

It prepared itself and then started the swing. A loud CRACK was heard as the air was forced aside or was ionized into Ozone. Damon quickly rushed in and removed Tayla from the impact Zone using his spine crawlers, dragging her to safety underground.

The creature stopped and looked at the hole in its chest, then stumbled towards Kerrigan, knowing that this energy caster was his biggest threat. Kerrigan hurled Psionic lightning, time and again at the thing, each time tearing it to shreds as gore sprayed from the holes being blown in it.

The things face mutated and resembled Arcturus Mengsk once more. It Laughed at Kerrigan before collapsing but still hung to life as it slowly bled out.

"Kerrigan? Damn bitch. I always thought that you would be the death of me." He said in between shallow and infrequent breaths

"The Devil himself found me in that prison, and he wants you to travel to where it all began, you five endanger his plan and he intends to deal with you." He finished pointing a finger at Damon before he expired.

Nathan approached the corpse and nervously kicked the arm, testing to see if it was dead before putting Tayla on the ground. "Where it all began, what could that mean?" he said

Kerrigan turned to him "the Overmind's birthplace, the Zerg Homeworld." She said

"And how exactly do you know that?" Zac asked her.

"when it was alive, the Overmind poured a select few of its memories into the Queen of blades, among those was its enslavement." Kerrigan replied

"and how exactly do you know THAT" Zac asked

"because the remnants of the queen of blades live up here, in my head!" she almost shouted at Zac before realizing this and recoiling in shock.

Zac stared at Kerrigan stunned, and Nathan looked ready to say something, but gave up on it before he did.

"you mean that she's …" Zac started

"not dead? No she really did die. Though, a … ghost of her formed of her memories remains. Its complicated." Kerrigan said

"well, since the Zerg can't remember where their Homeworld is, and neither does anyone else, we are going to need to access the Xel'Naga records to see if there are any clues as to where it might be." Damon said "so I'm going to need you guys to be on your best behaviour, the Protoss do not take kindly to the Zerg, and I won't be welcome planetside, neither shall Kerrigan. I'll need you two to convince them to allow us access to whatever stores of information they have."

"oh great, here's the rock to my hard place then." Zac said slightly less than enthusiastically

"I always wanted to meet the Protoss, but I fear that this might be a bit of a large barrier to peaceful negotiations" Nathan said indicating his claws

"there are some genetically altered Zerg on Auir that can help you, and we shall be in high orbit watching. Let's just hope that this works" Damon said before grabbing Tayla whose arm was almost back again and boarded the leviathan that had landed near them.

"it had better or I will tear you a new one" Zac muttered under his breath before boarding

**A/N**

**Yep, so sorry about a late and short post. I could think of NOTHING that would work, and I wa constantly dissatisfied with what I was writing.**

**Again i ask you to R&R. I am running out of good vibes and feedback needed to keep running.**


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